I'm pretty sure my car was sabotaged.

Last Thursday on the way home from work I noticed my exhaust was rattling more than usual. It was very loud and sounded like rocks were bouncing around in my muffler. In a non-related incident, I had shifter problems on the car (rough night, eh?) so I didn't drive the car for a couple of days until I got the shifter fixed.

When taking the car out of a test drive to make sure it was shifting all right, I noticed the rattling in the exhaust was even louder (at idle you can't hear it, only when you give it gas or while driving). After 1/2 mile or so, the car started jerking, sputtering and there was a noticeable loss of power. I got the car off the road, jacked it up again and took a look underneath. I tapped the muffler and it sounds like someone dumped bolts or rocks or something in there. Plus the driver-side tail pipe looks as if someone kicked it in.

So I'm wondering, could a blockage in the exhaust cause the power loss and jerking? If so, is there any way I can snake out whatever's in there without cutting the muffler off and redoing the exhaust? Or is my problem completely unrelated? I do have a small oil leak from one of the valves which is getting repaired on Monday, but I've been driving with that for a month or so now and never had any problems like that.

Anyway, did I fall for the old "banana in the tailpipe" bit, or is it something else?

Thanks in advance.

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Maverick
1989 Formula 350 TPI
5spd Tremec 3550/TKO
several suspension mods

 

It sounds to me like your catalytic converter came to pieces internally, and now it's all in the muffler. The reason the car feels weak is because the exhaust is now stopped up. A fairly common problem. More common than sabotaging the exhaust system.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

this subject title gets puts my mind in the guter.

 

Yeah, I thought it could be one of the cats, but both are solid. There's no noise when I tap on them, and they both seem securely held down. Of course it is still possible.

Sabotage came to mind simply because of the damage to the left tailpipe, and the fact that I've had problems with vandals (tire slashing, keying, kicking, etc) in the past.

Thanks for the help. If it is one of the cats I'll probably just gut it and run without (car's not gonna pass emissions anyway, so I might as well).


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Maverick
1989 Formula 350 TPI
5spd Tremec 3550/TKO
several suspension mods