Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting exhaust leak after spark plug/wire change

I think my 95 SE has an exhaust leak (or some other problem), somewhere near the back of the motor on top, driver's side-- in the neighborhood of the throttle body. Any ideas on how to diagnose or what this might be?

The sound is hard to describe-- kinda like a 'hole in muffler' sound. Noticeable when the engine is revved. With the hood up, there's a STRONG exhaust smell when the engine is revved. Sound starts fairly early - 2-3k RPM.

The car had run rough/hesitated/very slow for 4 months. 2 months ago I had some injection cleaning and fuel filter change; didn't help much. 3 days ago I replaced the spark plugs and wires. 2 of the replaced plugs seemed shot and the wires showed some significant damage (on the shaft thing that sits on top of the plug). New plugs/wires were a huge improvement (engine runs like it should now) but after 15 minutes I started hearing a strange noise and an intermittent CEL. Could it be that the exhaust leak happened now that the car is all of a sudden running well and firing on all 6 cylinders?
I'm not driving the car now (have an extra vehicle). Is the car safe to drive this way?

This is probably coincidental, but in the past 3-4 days I've noticed a slow coolant leak. I looked underneath, and it appears to be a hose not connected tight enough.

Sensing tubes from the egr tube to the DPFE,check them sounds like one is off or split........

If your exhaust had a hole in it, you'd get that fartpipe ricer sound (very high picthed). I would guess that your cat converter is starting to go? Terry is usually right, so check what he said.

You may be able to feel or hear the exhaust leak coming from the EGR tube/valve. The EGR valve is the shiny "hat" looking thing with the 1/8" vacume line coming off the top of if it and is located on the back/top of the engine. A clogged cat may force too much exhaust up the tube and cause a leak. There is a cat replacement recall on the 95/96 tours if you didn't get a letter.

Previous owner had the cat recall (#97E61) done in Dec. 1998.

Thanks much for the suggestions. I will investigate them as much as I can, given my limited automotive knowledge/understanding.

"The first thing to go wrong is the last thing you fixed" Old saying, not always true but is often enough to check the spark plugs to ensure they're properly threaded/seated and torqued.
I'm reading in your post that you didn't get this sound till after you replaced the plugs...yes/no?

...Ed

Yes, Ed-- I was not getting this problem before the plug/wire change. I checked the connection of the wires but did not re-verify that the plugs are properly threaded and torqued. I don't think this is the problem, as the engine ran poorly before the plug/wire change and is much better afterward.

I think I've found the leak; now what? Here's what I saw; please bear with me.

There are 2 rigid hoses coming from the top of the motor. They go back toward the cabin and then down, between the EGR solenoid and EGR valve/tube (?). I am embarrassed to say I don't know what those hoses are called; I spent 20 minutes searching my Haynes manual with no luck.

The one that goes down and has 2 red hoses (not the one that goes over toward the P/S reservoir) seems to have a crack/split/cut. The cut is not in the red part, but further down-- about 1" past the black rubber elbow. I could barely reach this while laying on top of the (cold) engine. There's a small whitish/yellow piece of plastic wedged in the crack. I don't know what it's doing there; it doesn't look like a clamp or anything.

I think this cut is too far in there for me to feel for an air leak with the engine running. Maybe if I removed the coil pack, but I didn't feel like doing that at 1:30 am.

What kind of a fix is this for a shop-- easy, cheap, expensive, quick, time-consuming, etc. Is it reasonable to expect little or no diagnosis charge since I can basically tell them what I want done?

I think Terry's diagnosis was right on. My question now is, what to do? How big a job is this? How difficult/complex? Is it best done by a shop?

I think you have to remove the air intake to get at the hoses but beyond that Good luck