My 90 Max has been running rough lately. I'm no mechanic (and don't claim to be), but the sound appears to be coming from around the cat. When I turn off the car, and am getting out, I hear a little sound (tic, tic) under the car, in that general area. Yesterday, it got a little louder (there is a hole in my muffler now). One of the things (probably unrelated, but I don't know) that I've also noticed is that the exhaust just stinks!

What makes the exhaust smell so bad?

Sorry if the question's been posted before.....

 

Sounds like you need to replace the entire exhaust system from the cat back to the muffler...

 

The smell comes from the catalytic converter usually for one of two reasons. Converter is failing or the air/fuel mixture is over rich. You said your car is running poorly. I'd look at the ignition and fuel delivery systems first. Could have a bad coil. An over rich condition could also 'super heat' the exhaust system. The ticking could be from the converter/heat sheild around cooling.

 

I'd have to agree with the cat being bad.

the trick now is finding the cause

 

Thank you for your ideas. I'm having someone take a look tomorrow....