Anyone had one of those hollow fake cat converter looking things, sound it make pinging / exhaust leak / weird noises.

i'm tired of my car making these horrible noises i'm almost ready to put the stock exhaust manifold and downpipe on.

my exhaust guy said these hollow fake cats and make weird pinging sounds or other weird sounds because of the expansion, kinda like how a 2 stroke expansion pipes makes the pinging sound on a 2 stroke.

the flex pipe doesn't look like its leaking, but i did spray it with soapy water and there were some small bubbles coming out of the seams when the exhaust was revved up.

 

got one of those cheap ebay headers and hollow cat downpipes on out shop hhr. it does make some weird noises for sure. the flex couplers are crap on those things, ours just fell apart.

 

The exhaust guy I always go to seems to think it's the fake cat he's going to cut it out tomorrow. If it's not that it has to be the flex piece. It doesn't leak at idle or very min throttle... But after that it leaks. Maybe with the movement of the engine tweaking around on the flex pipe

 

Taking the hollow fake cat out did not help.

Going to try a new flex pipe had to order it. Putting it on Monday.

It sounds like an exhaust leak to me... I think it only leaks when the engine moves. I saw bubbles around the seams when I had it idling on jacks and sprayed soapy water on it

 

New flex pipe fixed leak. I inspected the old flex and it showed no visible leaks anywhere. No soot or anything.

No more noise