Okay so today was my day to clean interior, exterior, and polish my car.. yeah so none of that got done. Was on my way to pick up my paycheck and went to a stop light, my car suddenly began running extremely rough and shaking pretty bad. I waited for it to turn green then pulled it over to a parking lot to check it out. Well the sound turned out coming from the cat. converter, i still have the stock exhaust on my car so i suppose it was bound to happen one of these days.

So I went and got my paycheck and then started driving to the closest exhaust shop, died once on the way there. Finally got there and i just decided to get the converter taken off, straight pipes put on, and all new piping, from front to back, straight pipes, new muffler, new tips and all. So yeah I was excited and have been waiting to get new exhaust for a while. So he started it up the first time after getting the new exhaust, there was a bad clanking noise to it so he shut it off and stuff and started it back up, then lifted it to check underneith, the guys were pointing about the flywheel and crap. And I just figured okay probably just another transmission problem, not a big deal. Well I left there, realizing the clanking really only happened constant when in park and nuetral, in drive and reverse it only happened when slowing down to a slow speed. Well I was taking it for a cruise for a while and decided to take it over to my buddies house who knows a ****load about trans ams and firebirds, he looked under it as I changed from different gears and all that.. And after a while came to the conclusion that it is either an electrical problem or its my starter, because my starter like wasnt disengaging correctly or something and might be rubbing against my flywheel, i didnt really get a chance to see it myself in motion. But who to blame here, because even though my cat. converter was makin a loud noise and **** too, im pretty damn sure that noise never happened until they did my exhaust.

One thing they never did when they did my exhaust is disconnect my battery, and i was told that could really mess up some sensors.

So what do I do here, i am going back there tomorrow.

 

It's probably not the starter.

The exhaust shop didn't do it.

Disconnecting the battery didn't hurt anything; and especially not any sensors, no matter what you were "told"; and sensors don't make the flex plate "clank" even if they were damaged.

Sounds to me like you have a cracked flex plate or loose torque converter bolts.

Don't make an idiot of yourself by pestering the exhaust shop about it. Nothing that they did, has anything to do with it.

I wouldn't be so concerned about "who to blame here" (your own words): I'd be more worried about finding whatever is wrong and fixing it.

By the way, I'd also recommend against posting stuff on the Internet about a shop "taking the converter off"; that's illegal, and can cost the shop BIG TIME if they get busted for it. I know of one exhaust shop that got hit with a $10,000 fine (which is what the federal law against doing that specifies) for EVERY ONE that an audit showed they had removed and not replaced, which just from the shop's records was over 100 of them. Needless to say, the owner of that shop had to find a new career.

 

well im gonna try to take my car to my cousin today if hes not too busy for him to check it out, i dont think its the flex plate though, hell ill take it to this friendly tranny shop i know of and have them just check it out for me.

Anywho... sorry bout posting stuff on the internet about the shop taking my converter off, although I don't really give a flying ****. It's a beat up half *** mexican-run muffler and brake shop and they can get shut down for all I care. Only reason I went there is because my car died and I didn't know how far i was gonna make it otherwise

And how do u figure the exhaust shop didnt do it? It's a before and after problem, they could have bumped something.

 

Pretty hard for them to "bump" a converter bolt loose while putting on some exhaust, or "bump" it hard enough to crack the flex plate.

Why don't you think it's the flex plate? Here you are telling us it sounds like something to do with the starter; well, that's the VERY PIECE that the starter would be hitting on if it didn't retract. The part that has the teeth that the starter teeth engage. THAT piece is the problem, not the starter.

It's just about always the flex plate for everybody else when their car starts making that noise, so it's worth a look in your case too.

All 3 of my brothers either work now, or have worked in the past, or worked while they were still alive, in service departments at car dealers. 1 as service mgr, 1 a service writer, 1 a tech. All 3 of them tell the funniest stories about people that bring their car in for an oil change or something, and then raise holy hell about their brakes making noise or something like that. "How can it not be your oil change?!?! It wasn't making that noise until you changed the oil! I'm not leaving until you fix my brakes!!!!!" Don't go there, unless you can PROVE that it was something they did; it makes you look like an idiot, and just gets people to laugh at you behind your back and tell funny stories about you. And it doesn't make them fix your car, either. In other words, it's a behavior that has ZERO positive possible outcomes, and ALL possible outcomes are negative TO YOU.

 

I'm not that person that goes into shops and say they did **** to my car, i'm the person working at them. But the fact is, these guys weren't very professional about it. I went in there today and had them lift my car up so we could see better what was causing the clanking, turns out the flywheel bolts were loose, when my friend checked it out he only had a spare tire jack so its pretty hard to tell what the hell is goin on sometimes when your layin on the ground lookin at it.

Anyway, so we tightened the bolts up, worked fabulous. But now I am dealing with a 02 sensor being bad or herhaps egr valve. Car is dying sometimes when i go from high to low rpm's too fast, goes too low of rpm's, bad fuel ratio. Was racing my friend in his new jetta on the interstate today and as he was behind me he saw a fireball out of my exhaust lol, so yeah.. hopefully thatll be fixed by the end of the day.