97 Camry 5S, engine suddenly loud

[Buurin]

Dad told me his 97 Camry 4cyl is suddenly loud and thought it was belt. It was not; when I heard it myself it sounded like a ricer installed a fartcan or an intake, so I'm suddenly rice! I have none of those but its exhaust does sound like that, plus some rattling at idle. I drove it around the block and it sounded like that all the time, but not as bad when car is coasting, whatever that means in a auto tranny.

It certainly sounds like a leak, now I need to pinpoint it. What I need to know is how to tell an intake leak from an exhaust leak from a vacuum leak. The following may help if anyone is willing to give me some pointers: (In case no one noticed, yes I'm having fun with my toy)

No CEL (yet)
Idle went as low as 680-690 rpm. cf. 750rpm normal idle.
Bank 1 O2 sensor 2 reads 0.05V idle; sensor 1 swings from 0.01 to 0.95 - seems pretty normal.
Short term fuel trim bank 3 between -1.6 to +14.1
Short term fuel trim bank 1 between -9.4 to +6.2
I smell exhaust from under the hood, near bottom of exhaust heat shield, a little bit off to driver side
I took apart the intake for a cleaning and to gain access to the diff fill plug, but I did reinstall everything tight.

Need help quieting down this big piggy's grunting (oink) , TIA

[unkit]

Have a look where the engine pipe joins the exhaust manifold....

I know its a stab in the dark, but when i had to fork out for a new engine pipe, i was told that this was the most "common" point for my car.

[scoprius]

My 93 V6 had the same problem, I have a hole about the size of a dime rusted right through my exhaust just after my catalitic.

[new echo owner]

Exhaust usually have kind of a roaring type sound, and vacuum leak is more of a hissing type sound and usually not as loud.

N.E.O.

[Buurin]

Yesterday night I looked at the exhaust and found damage on the flex pipe, a plastic race covering the brake and fuel lines warped, and scary rust on what looks like brake and fuel lines . So there were 4 possible leak spots - downpipe gasket, flex pipe, cat gasket, near resonator. Torch is required for everything except the downpipe gasket so it has to go to a shop anyway.

This morning the shop confirmed a hole through the flex pipe which is a $650 fix, ouch I pushed for a stainless steel catback but folks don't want to go through the trouble .

Strange that car is still not tripping any code 'cording to my DashDyno, given where the leak is.

Thanks guys.

[uuuuu]

Flex pipe for $650 on a 4 cylinder? See if you can go to an exhaust/muffler shop and have them weld in a new flexpipe. I got mine done for $130.

[new echo owner]

$650, are you in Cal? I think the Cal spec vehicles have a cat on the front pipe.

N.E.O.

[frenum49]

$650?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For a flex pipe? Find a new mech.

[Buurin]

Originally Posted by new echo owner

$650, are you in Cal? I think the Cal spec vehicles have a cat on the front pipe.

I'm not in Cal, but my fed-spec piggy does have a cat on the front pipe. Factory manual doesn't say where to cut and weld unlike my Corolla if that mean anything at all.

Originally Posted by frenum49

$650?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For a flex pipe? Find a new mech.

1sttoyotaparts quotes $92x for that same piece, so it seems fair, and...

Originally Posted by uuuuu

Flex pipe for $650 on a 4 cylinder? See if you can go to an exhaust/muffler shop and have them weld in a new flexpipe. I got mine done for $130.

... folks don't want to go through the trouble even though I raised this possibility. He just bought $500 worth of convenience which is disheartening. Last time my Corolla went to that shop is for safety inspection for assuming its ownership.

[new echo owner]

Glad to hear you got the car taken care of for your folks.

N.E.O.