So recently the exhaust note on my 1994 Geo Prizm has become much deeper/throatier. It almost sounds like one of the fart cans you would see on a riced up Civic. Not nearly as extreme as that, but similar. I noticed it right after a 2 hour drive on the freeway. My indicator light for an oil change came on so I changed my oil but the exhaust note is still noticeably different. Anyone know what might be going on?
your car just finally decided that it was time to start sounding awesome..
Hahah. At first I was mildly stoked on it as well but now it's starting to become a bit of an annoyance. Especially at highway speeds.
probably just the baffles in the muffler falling apart.
Either the baffles in the muffler let go, or the flex pipe/exhaust donut has sprung a leak.
Visual inspection of the exhaust shows what?
Outside the vehicle, where is the sound coming from: middle of car? Front? Tailpipe?
DrBoost wrote: flex pipe/exhaust donut has sprung a leak.
I have seen this cause those noises before
I am going to assume you live outside of The Rust Belt States for two reasons.
1. You still have a '94 Prism on the road.
2 In the Rust Belt, by the age of 10 you have likely ridden in more than one car with a rusted out muffler/exhaust.
I've owned 4 of these, still own two. They all leak at the flex pipe/donut area. Every single one. Both of mine do it right now.
JohnRW1621 wrote: I am going to assume you live outside of The Rust Belt States for two reasons. 1. You still have a '94 Prism on the road. 2 In the Rust Belt, by the age of 10 you have likely ridden in more than one car with a rusted out muffler/exhaust.
My 93 is actually in better shape than my 99... But my 93 was an east coast car. Its the 88-92s that are all gone around here. I can still get a 93-98 pretty easily, Somalians have just demolished the market.
mndsm wrote: I've owned 4 of these, still own two. They all leak at the flex pipe/donut area. Every single one. Both of mine do it right now.
Yup, my 99 didn't for about 4 months, then the muffler strap died and the donut got goofed up when the whole system bounced around for half a mile. I'll fix it someday.
Puberty?
ebonyandivory wrote: Visual inspection of the exhaust shows what? Outside the vehicle, where is the sound coming from: middle of car? Front? Tailpipe?
Externally, the exhaust looks fine. The sound is definitely coming from the back of the car, I believe the exhaust/muffler.
If it is a leak at the flex pipe/donut area, is that something that should be fixed ASAP? Is it something that could be fixed on my own (I'm not very car savvy)? Or would I be better off just taking it to a mechanic.
exhaust stuff is easy to fix... right up until bolts start breaking..
if it's the muffler, it's easy to fix: cut the old one off at the pipe with a sawzall and remove any hangers, jam new muffler in place and hook hangers back up before putting a clamp on the pipe..
I'll bet a dime that the intake bellows came off the air cleaner. I had a Corolla and a Tercel that did that all the time.
curtis73 wrote: I'll bet a dime that the intake bellows came off the air cleaner. I had a Corolla and a Tercel that did that all the time.
I've never actually seen that one. Interesting. All mine have exhaust leaks. ALL OF THEM.
In reply to mndsm:
I didn't say it was a good bet. :)
No, I'm just saying I've never seen it before. You've worked on a E36 M3load more cars than me, I don't doubt it's a decent guess. I just know I've owned 4 and seen plenty more and every single berkeleying one of them has an exhaust leak at the donut.
Sounds just like when the exhaust on my 1990 prizm started to fall apart. I ended up with a whole new rear section of the exhaust to fix it just to have my BIL tear the muffler off on a curb a week after I gave it to him to use. 
This time I just welded some pipe on and clamped it back as best I could. He's just going to tear it off again anyway.
Check the exhaust for leaks.
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