Recently picked up my first Jeep Cherokee and I love it. It has about 130K and everything seems solid except for the muffler definitely needs to be replaced, but there is another sound which has to be exhaust coming from the front somewhere. Bro in law said it could be the manifold (the one weak point he failed to mention when I went to look at it). You can't even hear it when it idles, but once you hit the gas, it sounds like a ticking/sputter noise and with the windows open it sounds like a hole in the exhaust or something. Cruising at 65, you can barely hear it until you really step on the gas again. Been reading some of the other posts, but not really sure how to identify the sound or if it is a cracked manifold, what to look for....any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

sure sounds like a cracked manifold to me. have someone sit in jeep, kinda do a light break torque, look in direction of noise with mirror and flashlight.
mine had a small crack, by weekend it got huge enough that i couldnt miss the hole that had formed. good luck.

 

Well, that is sucky but since it appears to be one of the few faults of this beast, I guess it's ok. There appear to be 2 types of replacements, I'm not going to weld this thing if it's broke, there's the one with the for lack of better knowledge some sort of flex pipe and one that's welded 3 pipes into one and then into one main outlet. Even though i'm as broke as the rest of the everyone, I would rather spend the extra 50-60 bucks and get the heavy duty model. Any suggestions?

 

an easy way to check for exhaust leaks is by using some seafoam vacuum induced....do a quick search on the "how" part and just watch the area you think is cracked/leaking, you should see it if it's leaking....plus it'll clean some crud out at the same tine

 

Did the seafoam, found out it's leaking at the back near the firewall. So I'm going to try and see if I can torque them down and see if it goes away, if not I'll be pulling off the manifold this weekend. Can't see any cracks or anything, kinda tight back there. Thanks

 

So i don't think it's cracked as from what I hear they usually crack around the collector pipes or whatever they are called, I'm wondering if it is just the gasket that is blown out or something. Any thoughts?

 

could be, if you cant find it from listening then seafoam will do the trick. just watch for the leak

 

We'll find out soon enough i guess, thanks.

 

Ended up being the manifold, not sure if it was warped or there was a crack, but it was by the #6 and I couldn't see any physical damage or anything. looked like it was slightly bent from where the pipe connected to the flange I guess you would call it. The part that sits against the head. Fixed now, thanks for the help.

 

Thanks for getting back and letting the guys know you got it fixed.If more people had the common sence you do the country would be better off thanks again.

 

NP,i already owe you guys thousands of $ in sanity....