Help with some problems with my 92

[jcruz]

Originally Posted by WARP TEN

Question: Does your car have catalytic converters or have they been removed for headers? It looks like your exhaust is stock from the video but I also had a stock system from headers back on my '95 but removed cats to go with headers. I also regularly had a bad smell on startup but that was the old smell of the '50s and '60s--before cats, when we tuned cars by smell and the look of the smoke out the exhaust. If your car does have cats, is it possible they have become non-functional? If your cats are fine and you think you have an exhaust leak it would have to be ahead of the cats to produce the smell you describe, I would think, which would mean headers. Certainly an exhaust leak should be corrected. Also, my take on the "smoke" and moisture from the mufflers is that it is simply condensation and entirely normal. I also had it. The pipes are lower than the muffler outlets for much of their length and a lot of moisture can accumulate in them. Drive for an hour or so then see if you get much on a cold start afterwards. As to a clunk in the suspension somewhere, I also had such a clunk especially when I backed out of my slightly inclined driveway, afterwards normally I wouldn't notice it. While everything looked fine, Marc changed the sway bar bushings and that solved it--no more clunk. My car had only 30k miles on it but the bushings just got old and hard. You indicated you felt it in the steering wheel so maybe front bushings need a look. --Bob

Still has catalytic converters and the exhaust is stock. I'll have to inspect more in front of them.

I hear you on the smoke and condensation, but fortunately, I have my 91 to compare to and in the same conditions, it produces no noticeable smoke or condensation, whereas the 92 is VERY noticeable.

Clunk/click only happens going back and forth. Just based on their age, I'm planning to replace the bushings when I can.

Thanks for your thoughts!

John