So a couple weeks ago i had the APR exhaust system installed on my 2000 1.8t fwd.
I have a 100 thousand miles on my car and wasnt suprised when something broke
during the install. The shop said that during install that one of the 3 bolt holes on the
cat was broken/ stripped or what ever, so i am running on 2 bolts isntead of 3. Now I
understand that they are like spring loaded and pull the downpipe and the cat together
and shouldnt be a problem.
But i was driving on the highway the other night and decided to punch it a little in 5th
when i finally tuned down the rpms i had a constant poping noise that was quite unfamiliar
and didnt go away till i put in the clutch and let the rpms go below 1000. COuld this be a
result of the missing bolt in the cat or what? Granted i did drive into a ditch the other night
wehn taking a turn far to fast and trying to keep up with an Sti, but there was no apparent
damage except for the towing bill, but could there be some i dont know about? yes that sucked

[IMG]local://upfiles/19146/592C01AD40444A0DA8A97B0135404169.jpg[/IMG]

 

Could just be something on the bottom of the car that is burning/popping when it gets up to high tempurature. Have you washed it since the accident?

 

Yah, i washed it that same day, i spent like an hour just getting all the **** out from the bottom with a hose.
Thing is though it only happens in fifth gear so i dunno, but you could be right because the car gets the
hottest when on the highway.

 

Sounds like your exhaust is just backfiring...its normal. My Borla pops all the time after a highway run...or any persistent high speed run for that matter.

 

**** ill rev my car up and on the way down the car will backfire. it sounds cool and its not bad for the car. imo dont worry about it

 

Yeah i get mini backfires when i rev up to redline and back down. much louder on the freeway tho.

 

Yah, it does a little, but i was just startled because the sound was really evident
after i pushed it in 5th. I thought maybe it was a result of the accident but i dunno.
I have another question though, do i need to look into fixing that 3rd bolt or is the 2
good enough. Because they said it would hold, and they also put some sort of exhaust
sealant on it, but it smells like it burns off sometimes. what do you think?

 

na if it falls off it wont hurt anything, it will just get really really loud, backfire some more and be faster