exhaust leak

[bizze003]

3 days ago I bought a '97 metro lsi with an 8V 1.3. to drive back and forth to work (100 mi/day) car is in great shape has 76000 mi, looks new inside & out
got 37 MPG with auto and air running on 1st tank of gas. Yesterday it devleloped an exhaust leak....sounds like at frount of car. I was wandering if it could be the donut gasket between the ex. manafold and the down pipe flange? It sounds horrible esp. when on the gas. What are some common failure points on the exhaust? I had a freind with a storm and he had to replace that donut gasket about every 3 months. Anyone know if these fail often? I really like the car so far other than this.

[mcalvo]

Bizze:
I drive my car 25 miles every day. It is a 96 4 door and gives me around 35 MPG. When I bought it 2 years ago, it came with new whole exhaust system. In all this time, I had to replace just the exhaust muffler. Never had any problem with gaskets or anything.

I would recommend your to take your car to an muffler shop to check the whole pipe, sometimes it get rotten by spots and can cause these problems. Even if they have to change the mannifold gasket, it would be a $10 less repair.

Hope this helps,

MC

[Infinitrium]

In my past experience with cars that had crappy exhaust systems, whenever the car got significantly louder when the pedal was pressed, it usually turned out to be a gasket on the exhaust. It shouldn't be an expensive part, shouldn't be terribly hard to change as long as the bolts aren't seized.