Questions and Answers

Saturn SC2 Exhaust Pinging Noise Q. I have a 1998 Saturn SC2, with a fuel injected DOHC 4 cylinder and 4 speed automatic. I recently had the exhaust replaced, i.e. everything from the catalytic converter to the muffler. The auto repair shop manager assured me that he was going to use OEM parts. What was supposed to take one hour lasted three because, he had trouble finding an intermediate pipe with a flange that fit my car.

He told me that Saturn had changed the position of the flange in the middle of the 1998 production year. The repair shop manager finally found an exhaust that fit and I was ready to go.

However, after driving around the block from the repair shop I noticed the exhaust seemed loud. Upon looking underneath the car I discovered the intermediate pipe didn't have a resonator.

I returned to the repair shop and reminded the manager that he had assured me that he was going to use OEM parts and that I wanted an exhaust with a resonator. He agreed to replace the exhaust with an intermediate pipe that has a resonator.

However, when I left the car with him the second time he discovered that the part he ordered from his parts supplier was too short. He told me to drop it off a third time and he would fabricate a piece to make it long enough.

The car now has a resonator and is definitely quiet, but I hear an unusual pinging coming from the exhaust. The pinging occurs after the car has warmed up and I can hear it when the car is running and I'm stopped at a red light and when I park the car and turn it off. Its very audible and rhythmic.

There seems to be a pinging noise every 5 seconds or so and this lasts about 10 or 15 minutes after the car is shut off. I looked underneath and noticed that he had welded a couple of extra pieces of tubing into the intermediate pipe (one piece before the resonator and another piece after the resonator) to make the pipe long enough to fit my car.

Is it possible that the welds are expanding and contracting with the heat and the cold and that these extra welds are creating the rhythmic pinging noises that I hear?Should I be concerned? Would you suggest that I go back and ask for a single piece intermediate pipe? Will the pinging eventually stop?

Chris

A. It is from expansion and contraction. I would consider it normal considering what the guy went through to hook you up. Maybe it will stop after a while, not sure.