So I had my cat replaced due to the recall, I never had an exhaust leak before. Now I have a ticking in the front of the car, and is getting louder as time goes by. I took it back to the dealer to get the exhaust manifold gasket repleced, they said there is noting wrong with it, it's the belt slipping (which is a crock of ****) So I seafoamed my car over the weekend with the hood open.....and all kinds of smoke was coming out of the engin bay. Now are these technicians trained to screw people over and deny anything is wrong with their car, or are they just idiots??

So anyway, how hard is it to replace this gasket?? The car sounds like crap and I need to fix it.

 

not hard at all. just time consuming

 

they didnt tighten the header or re used an old gasket. which is retarded because theres no need to remove the header to do the dp. gm techs are just regular idiots like myself, we all scratch our heads sometimes. it's a shame, most of them who go to school and enter dealer jobs from asap programs hate gm cars.

 

all the techs I have seen just don't care, there was one that was very helpful, and very knowledgable.....you can guess what he drove......

 

I don't think it's so much that they don't care, it's more that they are under pressure to complete jobs in X hours or they get ruined by the dealership for taking too much time and therefore losing money. This causes them to make mistakes, miss steps or in some cases I've caught around here, not even get the car into the shop and lie saying they did.

The biggest problem now is with all the dealership closures the remaining ones are overloaded. Customer service in general has gone to ****, the work has gone to **** and I've refused my home dealer to touch mine for the steering recall, it's going to the dealer (25 minutes away) that installed my GMS1. Same goes for the oil leak TSB on the LNF, they'll be doing it, not my home dealer.

Anyways, fixing the exhaust leak is just time consuming and make sure the car is stable on stands before crawling around under it .

 

It's not a big deal .... I can guarentee you that the leak is coming from either the 3-bolt entrance flange or 2-bolt exit flange on the downpipe. Jack up your car, and check these 5 bolts. They may be loose, or need re-tightening.

 

is simple dude
just lil room to work with thats all

 

thopse flanges usually cause a whistling like a turbo. but i may be wrong, i am speaking from my own experience with that clicking noise.

 

No they cause a ticking sound .... an exhaust leak makes a ticking sound (duh).

I too have had my share of exhaust leaks due to leaky downpipe flanges so I know what I'm talking about.

OP, check those bolts !!

The flex coupler on aftermarket downpipes will cause the "whistle sound" if it's of shitty quality, not the flanges.

 

I will just check it out, and I still have to take my car in for tehe fuel pump, and the steering, I ma going to take it to the one 45 min away I guess where I bought my malibu ss, they were great with sales and service....well back in 06 they were at least

 

you know everything huh

 

I never said I did, nor was I being an ass towards you so drop the attitude .... I do know a good deal about downpipes for our cars considering I had 3 different types on mine SS/SC. I went through all the different problems associated with aftermarket downpipes. The production downpipe (which the OP had replaced under warrenty) does not make a whistle sound ever due to the design of the flex joint. It will, however, make a ticking sound if it is leaking at one of the flanges, and since the dealership only has to loosen the bolts for the downpipe it is a pretty good chance that's where the leak "ticking" sound is coming from.

P.S. I had warrenty work performed on my car once, and the techs at the dealership had to loosen my downpipe to perform the work. Guess what ?!? When they returned my car to me it was making the same sound as the OP's car, because they forgot to tighten one of the 3 bolts in the 3-bolt inlet flange of the downpipe.