Car’s been making funny exhaust related noises of late. So today I’m cruising down the 10 fwy, right before the 57 in Pomona (Calif.) and suddenly I hear a scraping/ringing sort of noise. Hmmm. That sounds a lot like what I imagine my tailpipe would sound like if it were dragging along the freeway. I pull over. Yep. It’s just kinda hanging there. So I wrestle with it and after a few minutes finally break it off at the point where it had mostly given out. Now I’ve got about 3 feet of pipe and a little resonator-type thing. Pour a bottle of water on it to cool it down a little and toss it in the trunk. Continue about my business.
Now my car ('68 Volvo 122 for those wondering…to give you an idea how old it is, this was before they started making them boxy) sounds a bit meaner and has a deeper growl. Kind of like it.
Not looking for responses; just felt like sharing.
Those Volvos ROCK! And they must be the most reliable type of car ever: there’s lots still around here in Europe. A former colleague of mine had a (relatively rare) four door version, imported straight from Sweden.
I bet these tail pipes can be expensive for such an old car though. But here, there are club meetings etc. where you can get parts cheaper. Do you have those over there? What colour is it?
I know, I’m nosy. But I like the 122 
Gads, I loved our old 122…it’s the only car we’ve sold that I wish we still had. It ran like a top, was easy to work on, got pretty good gas mileage, and had a huge back seat
I bet it sounds great with no muffler, too, DeathLlama!
It might sound great, but I bet it’s now gutless and very thirsty.
In a car of that age, it’s not unusual to find that the engine is designed with a certain amount of exhaust back pressure, to ensure good performance. If you come along and remove half of the tailpipe, this will be significantly altered, usually to the engine’s detriment.
The role of the exhaust system in engine performance is just as significant as any other major parameter. That’s why high performance engines have headers fitted, tuned precisely to achieve optimum results.
yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that there is such a thing as backpressure and that it’s useful (of course, I don’t understand why). And actually, the muffler is still attached. It’s just the resonator and the last bit of pipe. But yeah, I’m gonna have it fixed. My folks bought a Midas muffler like 15 years ago and Midas has already fixed it once for free. And this is likely their fault anyhow (the last bit of pipe was fitted at such an angle that it broke away from the little rubber donuts holding it still…thus it kinda shook itself loose).
And Coldfire… it’s beige, 2 door, pretty good shape, and in desperate need of a tune up. Yes, I’m sure we have clubs over here, but there are very few cars like mine here in southern Ca. Up in northern Ca, where I’m from, there are tons and tons of them, though. I usually get the rarer parts from a place in Santa Cruz.
And DVous… yes it’s thirsty but has been for a while (that whole tune up thing), but it’s no more gutless than before (not that that’s saying much)
Hey everybody, here’s a site of a really nice 122 out in Tucson, AZ. Mine looks good, but nowhere near this good. http://www.azstarnet.com/~ianj/volvo/index.html I don’t ever want to get rid of mine. I plan to fix it up eventually. One day it’ll look this good again. ::sigh:: one day.
…and I never want you to get rid of it either, DeathLlama. It’s one of my favorite memories of you from college…cruising around in that thing, your freakin’ hilarious “SAVE THE WHALES…collect the whole set” sign in the window. Yeah, that’s when I knew you were cool.
As far as it being more gutless DVous…well, I’d say that makes it pretty close to anorexic. Not much more gut to lose, there.
Midas will replace it, then…“for the life of the vehicle.” We have their mufflers on our 86 Jeep (4 and counting) and our 84 Toyota (about to get #6 - it’s got low clearance, what can I say?) and they’re usually pretty cheerful about replacing them. You can usually get catalytic converter replacements out of them too, if you ever get a car new enough to have one. The only catch is that they’ll charge you for any ancillary parts, like pipe and hangers and such, and they’ll most likely try to convince you to have other (expensive) repairs you may or may not need.
Actually, doesn’t look like they’re going to pick up the tab. It was the muffler they replaced. It’s the resonator that wore out and broke. I checked the warranty and it pretty much says they’ll replace whatever they sold ya. They sold me (well, my folks) a muffler and that’s not what the problem is. ::sigh::
It’s only going to be about 70 bucks, but I’m a teacher and this is the end of summer. Two months without pay makes for one poor llama.
I’ll check out the fine print again and hope for the best.
In defense of Midas, when the last muffler wore out a couple of years ago they replaced it with no hassles (except that it took them a long time to actually find one).
Oh, and about their normal warranty, it’s for the life of the car only if the car doesn’t change hands I’m told.
alrighty. I should be in bed. why am I up?
LOL!
I can picture the ad in the For Sale column:
1968 Volvo 122, One owner, needs new exhaust, anorexic…
Mufflers or related stuff, are really quite cheap if you do it yourself. Like, say a muffler if you bought it yourself, is around $39.00 but Midas wants around $200.00 to do it.