On my 93 SW the stainless flex coupler was rusted/rotted through at the exhaust pipe right where the cat is.Looked like a flex coupler..man those things are not cheap! $50 or so here. I did not
t really have time to do the job properly..had to go skiing the next day haha..so I wrapped a piece of aluminum around the area to encompass the back part of the front ex pipe where the cat is and the flex coupler. This'll work for a while..till I can fix it right. I took it apart gooberred it up with muffler cement and a few clamps. Did the instructions let it warm shut it off/wait whatever the instructions were..some of them are different and there are a bunch of different glues/cements etc.
Next day lasted about 5 minutes haha..got noisy but did not get noisy enough to get stopped. The car seemed to be better on gas. Seemed. I dunno..maybe the stations/pumps/gas/I dunno. After several more trips back and forth skiing (340 k or so..200 miles or so) the car now noiser was for sure a good 5 mpg better!..but objectionally noisy..not enough to ge t stopped.
The following week I fixed it just about perfect and whisper quiet. I simply took off the flex joint,cut the ex pipe at the cat clean and the ex pipe clean and put another pipe in there(with the right cheap pipe adaptors)and clamped it up. Who needs that flex joint anyway.
And I lost that 5 mpg that I had gained. Guess I got it from less backpressure..
Those kinds of things seriouslly bother me. So you know what I did next
I took the pipe out that I had just put in..and I fiddled around with the pipe sizes/adapters/clamps etc. I wanted some leakage..less backpressure. I ended up with a combo of pipe,adapters,clamps that had some leakage due to the difference in size. It was next to impossible to clamp properly..no kidding due to the difference in pipe sizes SOooo..I drilled through both the ex pipes and the new pipe and the adapters and ran a stainless steel screw right through both sides and double nutted it.
It was for sure not whisper quiet..and yes..it was a bit noisy..not get pulled over noisy..I take people in my car no one ever remarked..crank the tunes up a bit. And it also rattled a bit
Got my 5 mpg back!
That repair lasted for years
When I had to go through emmission I wrapped the joints in muffler/exhaust pipe tape/ bandage nd goobered it all up..ya..like about a few minutes before the test haha. Wokred. Passed easy
Last year when my next Escort was like new..in the winter this truck ahead..all of a sudden chunks of ice the size of car batteries start litterring the road!! Nice. I can't avoid them. Over them I go..my car got noisy right after. Up on the stands. Sure. Nice. Bent the bracket that holds the cat to the trans/engine,broke the weld off the ex pipe where the bracket attaches to it,broke the flex joint at the back of the ex pipe,bent the ex pipe where it goes into the muffler,broke the muffler hanger off the muffler.
I did the same flex joint repair I did on my last Escort. So far so good..even with no bracket on the ex pipe near the cat where the bracket that attaches it to the trans/engine. Patched it up
I dunno..last year..what was up with the ex system prices for this car?? OUCH. Cheapest ex pipe around here was like $230. Sure..it is a wagon..but OUCH. Not installed. I managed to patch the old one up.
The cat wasn't bad at about $150..and the muffler at about $150 was waay too much too. I did not have to buy them.I shopped around..maybe they are down this year.