Why mufflers rust out faster near the water
Most mufflers don’t wear out. They rust out, and Edmonds gives rust a head start in two ways.
From the outside, it’s the salt air off the Sound. From the inside, it’s short trips. Burning fuel makes water vapor, and on a short drive the exhaust never gets hot enough to push it all out. It sits in the muffler and eats the metal from the inside. A car that only goes a couple of miles at a time can rot a muffler years sooner than one that gets regular highway drives.
What a failing exhaust sounds, looks and smells like
- A low rumble that gets louder when you accelerate
- A rattle or buzz under the floor
- More smoke than usual from the tailpipe
- An exhaust smell inside the car
- A pipe hanging lower than it should
The noise gets obvious pretty fast. Don’t wait on the smell. That one is a safety issue.
Repair or replace
There are cases where a muffler can be repaired, or where one was never installed properly to begin with. We’ll take your car in and give you a proper diagnosis. Usually, though, a muffler that has rusted through needs replacing, and we’re an affordable option for that.
We don’t stop at the muffler, either. We look at the pipes, hangers, gaskets, oxygen sensors and catalytic converter, so you know the condition of the whole system.
More on how it all works is on our main muffler and exhaust page and in our post on exhaust system basics.