Hi, new to the forum, I just bought a 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT 3.8L used. My only complaints so far are:

(1) The exhaust seems to be going, sounds a little "motorboatish" when accelerating, the sounds are worse at around 2000 RPM, which can be annoying on the highway.

(2) I also have an issue when I first start it up when it sat overnight or after it sitting for 5 hours or so, there is a metallic rattle coming from underneath the passengers side about where the sliding door is, it goes away for the most part after a few minutes or a mile or so of driving.

The vehicle has 40k miles on it and even so I wouldn't have thought the exhaust would be shot that quickly, it was manufactured and registered in August 2010. I looked underneath and noticed it appears there are 2 mufflers on this van? There is a small one by the bumper that is small maybe a foot long and another that was maybe 2 feet (guessing) long on the other side of the axle. The small one is still shiny metal, the bigger one looks old and brown. When I listen at the back of the van the the exhaust sounds like a truck if that makes sense, deep tones, would be ok if this were a truck or a charger or something. When you step on the gas in park it doesn't sound bad, but if you put some load on the engine and get it around 2000 RPM it gets worse.

I guess I am looking for advice on if people think replacing that larger muffler will fix the "motorboatish" sound while accelerating and the even worse sound at 2000 RPM. Also would like to know opinions on the second issue above.

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Terry

 

I'm guessing the chrysler knows about the problem, but have not come up with a fix yet. Once we find out it will be posted.

 

Unfortunately I didn't buy it at a Dodge/Chrysler dealer, actually a Ford dealer but anyways, I took a video of the issue while idle sounds to me like the exhaust needs replacing but I will leave it up to the experts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttN9an2Dk64

Also here is a photo of water leaking from the exhaust, let me know if that is an expected weep hole or if it looks like a bad seam.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...sc03402uh.jpg/

Thanks for looking.

 

ya seems you have a hole in the muffler. not sure it its supposed to be there. remember if u have rear ac theres also a drain in that area too. make sure not coming from that.

 

That was first start of the day today around 10am, ac was not on, looked like it built up quickly at that seam and started dripping.

Dodge dealer said new muffler is $422 + 150 labor + tax, does anyone know if the Walker mufflers from Autozone are OK to use or is there an advantage to the dealer ones?

 

There will be a small hole at the base of the muffler for condensation. There is no way I would pay 600 bucks to have a muffler installed though. Aftermarket will be just fine but don't let someone hack up your exhaust system putting it in. Keep your reciepts.

 

I figured there would be a hole for drainage, just didn't know if that was the spot for it or if that was a just a rust hole in addition to the expected hole somewhere else on the muffler.

What do you think of the sound of it in the video and the rattle noise, do you think replacing the muffler will help that or do these sound like that anyways?

Thanks.

 

I can't hear it well enough out in the shop......yes we work on Saturday.

I'll listen to it this evening with the headphones and tell you what I think.

 

Yeah thats muffler. I didn't hear any converter chunks rattling around. Dam thats loud!