[Daniel Wilson]

Today I was driving home and all of a sudden like magic my car was growling like it had a real desire to go tear up a race track. I've had a problem with a leaky, rusty exhaust system for a while now, but I was quoted about 700 dollars for a replacement awhile ago due to the caddy being welded to the resonator. Therefore, I decided to wait. Now, as much as I love everyone assuming that I'm trying to compensate for something by making my little car louder, I'd love to fix the crack right at the joint to the muffler. Because the rest of it is in such bad shape (I love road salt ) and it's only a matter of time before other things break, I think I'm going to try and replace everything below the exhaust manifold. I'm looking at the Walker exhaust kit on rock auto but I'm having a hard time understanding how to get a caddy that will work with that kit and won't require welding. This is the kit I'm looking at:
http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=5908767&cc=1364677&jnid=559&jpid=1
Does anyone know which caddy to buy? I don't have welding equipment and would much prefer to do no sawing because I would have to do it by hand. Further, has anyone done this before and have thoughts, suggestions or things they found that might be unique to the echo?

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[MarshallO86]

By caddy you mean catalytic converter, right? And in that case I do not believe brand matters. There are really two ways you can go with aftermarket cats:
1. weld in replacement/non vehicle specific
2. OE type replacements for the echo
I think that a shop is going to be your best bet if you want to go with option 1. They're usually cheaper than the OE type replacements though.
For the second option, I think most cats are pretty much equal, with the exception of those certified for use in California (they have super strict emissions and cost more money). But if you're going to go with Walker replacement exhaust system, then I always think that it's good practice to stay in the brand just for fitment peace of mind. It looks like your link is just the post cat components. So you might have to buy the cat and rest of the exhaust separately.

On my echo, when my dad had it, the muffler from the axle back fell off and he ran it over. Consequently, an aftermarket universal muffler was poorly fitted on. And much later an exhaust leak at the resonator developed last year. A shop replaced the whole rusted section with a straight pipe from the cat to the muffler for less than $100 USD. Now my car is pretty raspy but I enjoy being able to hear the car a little more.

 

[ld006]

This is what I put on mine 4 years ago and it's still going strong. It also makes it sound like it's a race car. Everything is already welded together:

Cat and resonator: BOSAL 0991603 Premium Load: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1985486&cc=1388808&jsn=323

Muffler: BOSAL KIT9492874 https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=5944374&cc=1388808&jsn=310