I washed the engine bay and under carrige this weekend and now car sounds louder and deeper. I still have stock exhaust, probably old and rusted. Can this be a serious problem?

 

if u preasure washed it u could have blasted off some of the rust and now u could have a hole, which would make it louder.

 

What did you do to "wash" the engine bay?

 

I used Engine Brite.

 

I think Coldsho was right... you probably busted a hole in your exhaust somewhere with the pressure spray... can't think of any other reason... I see that you're in Chicago, so the snow and salt possibly did your exhaust in. I used to have a 97 VW when I lived in Michigan and the exhaust rusted out at 75k miles....

 

here's the reason to get a new exhaust. Cattman headers and custom cat-back.

 

Damn right... do it do it...

That's exactly what I did with that VW... I replaced the stock exhaust with a Neuspeed and it was so worth it...