Hi,

I just got a new clutch and clutch slave cylinder in my 1998 Ford Explorer. Driving it home from the mechanic, I'm hearing a sputtering sound coming from what seems to be the lower part of the engine compartment. It sounds like a VW Bug exhaust. I've never heard this sound before. It's troubling that it has appeared now immediately following a repair. I presume there is a outside possibility that it's not the mechanics doing, but that seems improbable. (The engine was revving high right before the clutch blew out last week, so maybe those brief high revs caused some damage? I can't imagine that being the case.) Or was there something in the clutch repair process that could have resulted in this?

I made a recording of the sound here:

http://f.cl.ly/items/0X2L312T2Y333x0...ar%20Noise.m4a

I would appreciate some feedback as to what this is before I call the mechanic and blame it on him.

Thank you.

 

Is the CEL lit? it sounds like an exhaust leak to me. The CEL may not come on right away with a small leak... it may show as a pending code until you drive it long enough... it tries to correct the issue by adjusting fuel and o2 input... it will then give up after a period of time and throw the code to turn on the light. How is your gas mileage? poor fuel economy may be an indicator as well.

The mechanic may have had to drop the exhaust to work on the clutch...may not be seated fully on manifold.

 

Thank you Brenda. I guess this might be sexist, but I am impressed you are a woman.

The CEL light is always on because I have a broken gas cap. I'm not yet sure about mileage because I haven't driven it more than a few miles.

I appreciate this feedback and it's actually encouraging to hear. I hope that this is simply an exhaust leak like you said. I will call my mechanic.

I'll report back.

 

Agreed, that sounds like an exhaust leak. It's pretty common for exhaust manifold studs to break on these. Often with a broken manifold stud the ticking will go away when the exhaust gets up to temp.

It's quite possible that in the process of doing the clutch the exhaust was moved around enough to strain an already weak stud and it chose this time to break.

If the noise does not go aware after a few minutes of driving, or the leak is found to be at one of the donut joints downstream from the manifold, that would likely be something that happened as a result of the clutch work.

The shop has a tough call to make in situations like this. If they opted to replace the donut gaskets to avoid an exhaust leak after the clutch repair customers would gripe about the cost of parts that shouldn't be needed because the exhaust was fine when the vehicle was brought in. If they don't replace the donut gaskets to avoid those customer discussions, then a leak occurs, they get folks in situations like you are in where the problem shows up afterwards and, again, a less than pleased customer. They probably have something like a 50-50 chance of exhaust leaks forming as part of the clutch replacement process.

So, depending on what the source of the exhaust leak is found to be, try to consider the explanation and don't necessarily assume the shop is trying to pull one over on you. I don't mean to sound like you are the type to charge in irate that the shop screwed something up, you sound quite rationale and reasonable. But there inevitably will be someone reading this thread later that will just assume that just because everything was fine with the exhaust when you took the vehicle in for seemingly unrelated service, anything that happens elsewhere has to be the fault of the shop.

-Rod

 

Thank you Rod. So , should the shop fix this for free or is it reasonable and fair that they charge me for some parts (manifold studs/donut gaskets?) to fix this? If they do charge me, what should this cost?

Yes, I am not a nut case. I trust most people, including this shop. It's Break Masters. They have always been trustworthy in the past with other family members and have performed quality work. This is the first problem we've ever had with them.

 

If the issue is determined to be a manifold stud then I wouldn't expect the shop to cover any of that repair cost. However, if the issue is with the donut gasket, it would be reasonable to at least ask if they'd be willing to cover the labor and you pick up the part cost since, had the issue been identified during the clutch work you would have only had to pay part cost, not labor.

-Rod

 

HAHA I am not offended nor will I accuse you of being sexist. LMAO I hope you can fix it quick. Shorod has helped me a lot to get to know my new (used) Explorer. I would fix your gas cap too so you can pass emissions test. Good luck