I get in the Crossfire this morning at 7 & crank her up. She set off the car alarm of my neighbor three houses down! She sounded like a gawd awful ricer Honda with a coffee can muffler!

I shut her off immediately to figure out what was wrong. Nothing brought itself to light even after much peering under the hood and peeking under the chassis.

I called the Exhaust Shop that did my crossover pipes & drove straight there. I was DAMN glad to have a pair of sunglasses to hide behind as I drove. I was ashamed. Oh it was awful.

They got her up on the rack & a few minutes later they called me into the shop. They told me the Cat wasn't leaking, it was broken. They cut it out & showed me. The Cat split almost all the way around on the weld. I guess it's a manufacturer's defect.

I have attached a picture.

They shop cleaned the break, welded it up, & put it back in. Sounds soooo much better. :-)

Has anyone else seen a failure like this?

-WayneK

 

have not had that but it looks like some leaded gas was put in the car,, sometime it takes a month to a year to clog the cat ,,, or you could have hit something with the exhaust,, check and see if that is covered under emissions.. jim

 

Nope, no leaded gas and no damage to the pipes. It wasn't clogged, it was just split right down the weld line.

I inspected the old pipes after the shop cut them off to build the crossover pipe. There was no damage to them. (Other than a melted on WalMart bag)
The new pipes are still virgin. :-)

I'm guessing some robot welder in Germany was hung over on a Monday morning.

:-)

 

I had the same problem last year although not as severe as your case. I guess I caught it before it split too much. The muffler shop welded it shut and no problems since. While they were under there I had them remove the rear cats and for stock it sounds real sweet. People always ask me what kind of muffler I have installed and when I tell them it's stock they don't believe me.

 

Holy crapola, Wayne!
BUT, you should've slapped on some homemade flames & maybe a racing number on the sides of the car, drove with your arm out the window & told anyone that asked that you're heading to the track.
Or keep gunning the engine & tell everyone that you really want a Harley & you're just checking out how one would sound !

 

and Yellow Stickers... because Yellow makes you go faster (in a Honda)!

 

Wayne, come on now, that is just absurd.

You know you would need a 'Type R' badge to really get some good 1/4 mi times posted LOL

 

those type R badges are not just for hondas anymore, I've seen numerous ones on mustangs, camaros, one corolla, and just here and there random non-honda/acuras.

 

how long ago did they do your crossover pipes... any correlation??

 

Rob,
I did my crossover pipe this week but it still had a 'unusual sound' coming from under the hood. The shop thought i had a bad donut gasket. That's why I posted a different thread about finding said gasket. (There isn't one) So I guess it was this weld going bad. :-(

 

Your converter is covered under warranty for 100,000 mi. Federal law, I think. Don't know if they would have covered it with your exhaust mods, but for anyone else with this problem, take it back to the dealer.

 

I have noticed lately that my car is making an abnormal sound from just behind the engine, but almost under that car. If I tap the throttle slightly and let off right away to keep the rev under 1000, it makes a somewhat "purring" sound. It sounds stronger on the driver side than passenger. It sounds almost as if there is a small hole in the exhaust letting air putter out. Again, noticeable at low rev.

Has anyone encountered something like this? If so, what was the fix? Could this be an early weld issue forming?

 

To me, that metal on the cap doesnt even look like its been penetrated by the weld at all. I wonder if there machine is out of calibration. Thats pretty wild. One reason to keep humans on the job. Of course you dont find beer cans in the doors of friday cars with robots,

 

LMFAO!!!!

 

That's a great picture of something in welding called "cold lap".

Basically, there was no fusion with the base material on one side of the part. This can be due to a number of things, but in this case it was probably due to either too low of a current being used or a bad grounding set-up.

Bad part fit-up can also cause this, but in this case it looks like there was a pretty tight fit between the parts interfacially.

 

what size are the bolts on the exhaust. mine are all corroded to hell. might have to cut them out.

 

Hey, spent yesterday under my car. the Cat had split exactly the same as yours in the picture. was the left cat. Righ one looks fine. Just hoping the weld holds.

 

Mine finally tripped the OBDII to signal a check engine light this morning. Dropped it off at the dealer near my work and a few hours later, got a phone call to indicate they ordered a new left cat (and steering wheel since it's peeling)....best part is warranty is covering it all. I have to wonder if all the cat's that have broken were on the left side. Chrysler should really make this a recall since it appears to be a manufacturing defect...

 

As a follow up for this, I just picked up the car from the dealer (Dayton Andrews) and the original factory warranty, not the extended, covered it 100%. The rep said it would have been a $2000 job had I had to pay for it myself. Knowing that, if the other one breaks and warranty is up, I'll opt to get it welded.

I just want to add what a great experience I had at Dayton Andrews. I saw quite a few Crossfires in as I was picking mine up (2 in the parking lot by mine..in the shade, and 1 partially beat up in the body shop). Service was prompt and friendly everywhere from the cashier, to service, to the body shop. I definitely recommend them and will be going back for future needs.

Just a heads up, I recommend Dayton Andrews, but still shop around when taking yours in for service. I had mine in several months ago at Jerry Ulm and they said they could replace the steering wheel under warranty since it was peeling. Dayton Andrews said they couldn't because it was normal wear and tear. Considering the overall experience there was very good, I didn't feel it necessary to insist they get it covered. So I'll just take it back to where they said it would be covered and pay the deductible there since I didn't have to pay for the catalytic converter replacement.

 

I'll second the Dayton Andrews recommendation.. My Dad bought his roadster from them, and had a great experience. Apparently they have an awesome service tech there w/ lots of experience w/ Crossfires. Good enough that I almost took my coupe down there to have him take a look at... 6 hours away. Thankfully though, I got the problem resolved here.. I HOPE!
So ya, Dayton Andrews is A+!