I have a 1993 SE and I know that my flex tube on my stock y pipe is rotting and one of the rings around it has gone bad and is making noise but the noise is really bad. How do you know if it is your exhaust stud going bad? Im replacing the pipe at the end of august and also if it has to be replaced its probably going to have to be drilled out and how much does all that run to have done at a shop(replace y-pipe with warpseed pipe and replace exhaust stud?)?

thanks
-mike

look around the exhaust manifold...if you see holes w/ no bolts/nuts/studs in them..they are broken..the more you see missing the bigger the leak..and the higher the bill is.

where exactly am i looking on the manifold?

Where it bolts to the head. The rear is tough to see..best kneel on the intake manifold and inpect with a flashlight..get your hand in there and feel for them if you can't see them..wait till it's cool!!

There should be 6 studs w/ nuts securing each manifold (there are 2, one in front, one in back). On the front it's pretty obvious to see the nuts. The rear, you might have to reach down there and feel it out. Just do it in the morning when the car is COLD!. The y-pipe will make a lot of noise (mine is busted right now) but a broken exhaust manifold stud will usually make a high-pitched whistle on hard acceleration.

OK, if the stud is broken will it make noise even after the car has warmed up? My car only makes noises when the car is cold but after abut 3-5 minutes of warming up ther are no noises at all. I know that once the pipe is hot it expands (right?). Hopefully its just the pipe and not the studs! Like I said, i know the flex tube on the pipe is rotting and the ring has come off and is rattling!

if it gets quiter when hot then you're at the beginning stage of the studs breaking.

but some of that noise has to do with my flex tube rotting out and the ring thats there is jumping around too making some noise. Ill get it checked out when i get the new pipe put on

Jumping could be those wonderful injectors we all have. True though, if it quiets down when hot, probably manifold studs, or cracked manifold, had this prob on another car.

the cars not jusmping i mean the ring thats on the flex tube is vibrating making some noise and my flex tube is rotting. my manifolds are fine!

ok you know the problem...then fix the flex..then see what else u got. don't worry about the studs for now.

i was just trying to figure out if you can tell if they are bad or not!

Not easy to do when there is another leak.

well we gave u the symptoms of it..we can't know for sure over the internet.
you seems like in denial that the studs are broken...i say they are..but u say that some of the noise is from the flex. then go fix the flex...if u still hear it then you know the studs are gone.

if you don't know what you're looking at then when u get the flex done have the guy look at the manifolds too.

let me flip on my supersonic hearing.

I brought my 91SE in to a shop yesterday (they only do exaust work) to see if the studs were broken on mine as well. I replaced the flex/ypipe last year. It needed replacing anyway, but didn't entirely remedy that "clickity" sound that really bothered me. When I brought it in yesterday they had trouble isolating the problem and used the standard hose to the ear trick. It didn't help. Ultimately, he asked me to leave it with him so he could diagnose it when the engine was cold.