Troubleshooting a Couple problems

[sccrkeep89]

I've got a 93 Corolla with 109K miles. I've got a couple of small problems i was hoping y'all could help me out with.

1: the drivers side headlight doesn't always come on when I turn the headlights on. If I get out and knock on it however, it will turn on. It isnt every time so I'm assuming it isn't the actual bulb but I'm not sure what it would be.

2: I have a somewhat hollow, metallic sound coming from the exhaust during acceleration. I thought it was the cat, but a shop I recently had it in said there was no back pressure, so that wouldn't be it. They couldn't find a problem. A week ago on a road trip the sound was worse than ever and my car struggle more than normal to accelerate, especially when i was around 70 to 80 mph. Also, my city fuel economy has dropped from around 28 to 21 mpg, and my highway from 35 to 31 mpg. Any ideas? Think the guys at the shop were just wrong?

Thanks

[topnotch]

well heres my idea of your problems. the headlight issue can be eather the wires or the harness to your headlights so you can check them out to see if ther worn out....as for the hollow noise from your exhaust it could be from the ring seals that place between the manifold and the downpipe is it by any chance you burning to much fuel? seeing that the guys at the shop said you have no back pressure means you have a leak in the exhaust manifold area you can check it out by reving your car with your other hand by the exhaust manifold to feel for leaking exhaust only do this on a cold start dont want to get your hands down ther in a hot engine bay if you know anyone with a dianogstic test kit it will go through a list of checks reading your cars ecu to search out any problems.

[sccrkeep89]

it is burning too much fuel. I meant to put that in the original post. I'll check those rings out. thanks

[cipher93]

On the head light issue, remove the bulb from the socket and try some contact cleaner on the contacts and put the bulb back in the socket and try it. It will probably smoke a little for a few seconds but it's not a sign of issues. If that doesn't fix it, inspect the connections on the socket. Use a multimeter to check the terminals.