Well, this morning I was doing a little putzing around under the hood of my 89 gli (just in case I wasn't running late enough to work already). I've recently come to the conclusion that my car is so loud, it must have an exhaust leak. Especially above 4k rpm and highway speeds, it just drones. I thought it was b/c of a tiny crack in the mid-muffler, which has been there since I bought the car last May. However, lately I've been thinking that the noise sounds more like it's coming from in front of the firewall.
I know the cat's bolted securely to the downpipe. So I thought maybe it was something with where the downpipe connects to the exhaust manifold or maybe the manifold itself was a little loose or had a crack in it. I started the car idling and was using some waterpump pliers to see if I could pull the downpipe tighter to the manifold, when I feel a stab of warm air hitting high up on my forearm. I felt around, and could certainly feel exhaust leaking out. It's coming from the little thin pipe that sticks straight up behind the back of the exhaust manifold. There's a light blue cap on the pipe, and the cap seems to have split open on the underside. I pressed my finger on it, and the noise stopped instantly! Oh man, I can't believe I never discovered this sooner. What is this little pipe? Some sort of emissions testing connection? I guess I'll stop by Metro VW on the way home tonight and get another cap for it, unless they want to sell me a whole new little pipe with it. For now I've "engineered a temporary fix" (read: duct tape). Laters, Brian -- The 21st century begins on January 1, 2001. _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
