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Muffler

BlueberryXJGirl

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Richmond, VA
So here's my big issue.

I have a 94 XJ and over the weekend the muffler rusted through and its hanging from the car. I have no idea how to fix it even temporarily to get it to a shop and this is my daily driver! I need some serious help here. Even if someone in Richmond, VA could come out and help me fix the thing, I want to learn but I don't know where to start. I tried hooking it up with wire to just get it to the repair shop but that lasted about 2 blocks with me driving under 25mph. Any help, ideas or whatever would be great. I really don't want to have to pay out the A** for a shop to fix it either if I could just buy the parts and put them on myself (with help of course)
Thanks!
 
Cut it off. Power tool, hack saw, ect... I have been without a muffler for almost a year now and I am very happy with the sound. Just hack that sucker off and by a new one if you want. (Borla is pretty cool catback system)

If you go to MIDAS then they won't charge you to chop it off.
 
If it's rusted through, it's been a long time coming and didn't just occur overnight. The rest of your exhaust and probably the undercarriage is likely an oxidated mass anyway.

There are quite a few VA folks on NAXJA, and they can undoubtedly hook you up with pointers and good shops. I expect you're going to have to do more than just replace a muffler at this point though - like I said you've probably got a good case of metal cancer going on under there.

Welcome to NAXJA... :D

Jim www.yuccaman.com
 
*wails*
wonderful....just what i needed to hear...why doesn't that make me happy? hahaha
thanks for the welcome.
And for the tip about just getting it hacked off...is it legal to do that though? I thought you had to have a muffler. I love the sound it makes without it though >_< Maybe I can see what they can do about that.
 
You need your Cat. not your muffler. (here in Iowa anyways)

Here http://www.noisefree.org/cityord/richmond.html I skimmed through it. I didn't see anything about mufflers but from the sound of your rules, where you live sucks with laws. I would just get a for sure answer first. Either by your car shop or some one of the forums probably knows. Or contact your police department.
 
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If it is rusted that bad, you can probably just rip it off with your hands.

Take it to a muffler shop. I just had my '88 in a tiny, one bay muffler shop. A new cat, flowmaster muffler and tail pipe was just over $200.00. The cat alone was nearly $100 so if you don't need that and go with a standard replacment muffler it should be fairly cheap.
 
In Virginia if your vehicle came with a muffler from the factory then it has to have a muffler to be legal. I have a Subaru Performance Tuning CAT back system on my car and have had cops give me crap about it. They say "it is to loud" or "it is not to factory specs". Thats when I have to show them the recipt for it and prove that it was a factory option. I would try to cut it off JUST until you can get it fixed. There is no way it will pass inspection without a muffler but you can squeeze by on the road for a little while as long as you aren't smashing the gas to make it obvious that you don't have a muffler.
 
replaced my muffler/tailpipe the other day and it was a pain. the cat/muffler were fused together so i had to drop them together and use a cutoff wheel to seperate them. then hanger on the tailpipe was welded in the wrong spot so the tailpipe would rub on the "frame rails." took about two hours of fighting with it to get it right.
 
what about replacing your whole exhaust by yourself..?

can't you simply undue the exhaust at the downpipe flange, or cut everything off...buy the parts, buy a hanger, slip everything together and use some muffler bondo stuff to connect the parts - and hang it back up??
 
There are noise ordinances in some areas. Most of the time you don't need a muffler to pass inspections, but you can still get pulled over and ticketed for loud exhaust.
 
where would you even purchase everything from the downpipe, cat, muffler, and tail pipe if you wanted to do a complete replacement yoruself?
 
bacelaw said:
where would you even purchase everything from the downpipe, cat, muffler, and tail pipe if you wanted to do a complete replacement yoruself?
NAPA, Advance Auto, or AutoZone.
 
i got it fixed...took it in and they said everything was great except for the muffler and so i just got a new muffler and sleeve. It didn't even really cost that much, thank god. Next up on my list is rotating the tires tomorrow....*sigh* in the heat. That I can do on my own...no big deal. Thanks for all the help guys! Im glad there are people out there that care enough to even throw out suggestions. After I get all the basic stupid shit fixed Im gonna start working on stuff I want on the car!
 
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