Engine ticking - Exhaust Leak - Fixed

[the-dude-abides]

Just wanted to drop a note here in case any of you all go looking for a solution to a similar/same problem.

I drove to Colorado (about 16 hours one way) and did some wheeling for a couple of days (red cone, old tin cup pass, some other pass, etc). Mostly 2.5 and 3's but old tin cup pass had what I would call a 3.5 section. I turtled and got hung up on my resonator and had to pull rope.

The resonator is dented up pretty good but otherwise everything seemed fine.

Fast forward to the week I get back from CO and I notice a ticking sound from the driver side of the engine that increased with rpms and never really seemed to go away but was worse under load. Sounded to me like an exhaust leak. No reduction in power or other symptoms, just annoying. I was hoping it wasn't some lifter going south so I crossed my fingers and dug into the exhaust system.

First thing I did was verify there was an exhaust leak. I did this by putting my shop vac on reverse and blowing air up the tail pipe. Then I went about spraying soapy water where the catalytic converter marries up to the exhaust manifold. Before I even sprayed the area I could hear air coming out from somewhere in that area. Sure enough, lots of bubbles seemingly by the lower left bolt of the cat bracket.

So, I knew I needed to pull the cat off and see what's up with that.

So I got a 24 hour pass to that Mopar tech site thing to look up the procedure and make sure there wasn't some gotcha. The instructions listed all kind of crap liking removing the drive shaft, cutting off the exhaust, blah blah. I didn't need to actually replace the cat (I hoped) so I figured it'd just loosen and move it enough to see what the problem was.

Steps are easy:
1) Remove bolts holding the y exhaust pipe to the cat pipe.
2) Remove left front tire and splash guard (3 bolts and a few push fittings... Having some trim tools really help here).
3) Disconnect sensor wiring connectors (2)coming off the cat (to give room to move it around).
4) Remove top bolts attaching cat to exhaust header. Bottom bolts don't need to be removed to get the cat off (but will to replace the gasket later).
5) Lift cat up out of bottom bracket and orient it in a way to get out the bottom bolts holding the cat bracket.
6) Remove bottom bolts and bracket and metal gasket will come out with it.

So here's what it looks like before it's all removed:

Here's the bottom bracket still attached but the cat disconnected:

And with the bracket removed along with the gasket, we can clearly see where the exhaust leak was:

Gasket:

Seemed bent where it was leaking:

I cleaned up the exhaust manifold best I could and felt around. Seemed to feel fine but no real way for me to put a straight edge on it nor the cat surface to see if either were warped. Really hoped it was the gasket.

I replaced the gasket with the one I got from Napa auto parts (same part seems to fit 2012 and up v6 wranglers too...part #68093232AA). Buttoned and torque everything back up (24Nm on cat to manifold and 18Nm on y exhaust to cat).

Turned the vac back on and checked for bubbles. No bubbles!

Fired it up and no more ticking! Got everything back together and took it for a spin. Totally quiet.

Took two hours and $32.

I don't know if that gasket was always like that and it just got worse over time or if all that pressure on the resonator caused the cat to move up slightly creating just enough gap. Unsure.

I will be looking into some under carriage armor that covers the resonator area. Not sure if that's what caused this but it's a good excuse to buy it

Hope this helps someone in the future. Ping me if you have any questions.

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[j.o.y.ride]

@the-dude-abides ... I may be having an exhaust leak as well. I have had a hard time describing the sound, it's definitely not ticking like valvetrain. Sounds like a small fan or vacuum leak but no codes.

Kinda sounds like strained and struggling but drives totally fine. I hear it more in the cab than outside.

How would you describe your sound?

 

[GoVR46]

@the-dude-abides ... I may be having an exhaust leak as well. I have had a hard time describing the sound, it's definitely not ticking like valvetrain. Sounds like a small fan or vacuum leak but no codes.

Kinda sounds like strained and struggling but drives totally fine. I hear it more in the cab than outside.

How would you describe your sound?

Did you go wheeling recently? If so did you hit any obstacles underneath the truck?
If the answers to the questions are yes, then I'm pretty sure you have the above problem, I know I did. Exhaust leak drivers side manifold.
When you hit on the Exhaust it can shift the manifold slightly, enough to cause an exhaust leak.
I didn't have to replace the gasket at all, took it out, put a small amount of exhaust gasket sealer on it. Put it back together.
No leak ever since.

Sound is like a diesel fuel pump at idle and low rpm. Sound almost goes away the faster you drive. Power is not affected.

 

[the-dude-abides]

Did you go wheeling recently? If so did you hit any obstacles underneath the truck?
If the answers to the questions are yes, then I'm pretty sure you have the above problem, I know I did. Exhaust leak drivers side manifold.
When you hit on the Exhaust it can shift the manifold slightly, enough to cause an exhaust leak.
I didn't have to replace the gasket at all, took it out, put a small amount of exhaust gasket sealer on it. Put it back together.
No leak ever since.

Sound is like a diesel fuel pump at idle and low rpm. Sound almost goes away the faster you drive. Power is not affected.

This ^ very likely only to happen with some kind of force IMO.

Except the ticking didn't go away with rpms for me. Nor did it change with engine temp. I'd spend the few dollars and replace the gasket if you get it all apart. To each their own.

 

[LostWoods]

@the-dude-abides ... I may be having an exhaust leak as well. I have had a hard time describing the sound, it's definitely not ticking like valvetrain. Sounds like a small fan or vacuum leak but no codes.

Kinda sounds like strained and struggling but drives totally fine. I hear it more in the cab than outside.

How would you describe your sound?

If you want to search for an exhaust leak, get a discount stethoscope, remove the thing at the end of the tube, and insert a 2-3' length of brake tubing (ideally with a small bend at the end). Probe around seams of the exhaust and you'll hear a very obvious popping anywhere there's a leak. Works for pretty much any noise or vacuum leak as well.

Generally works easier if you have someone to hold it just above idle.

 

[whiteglad]

I was concerned about the front resonator because it hangs low and is where you would high center. I cut it off close to the body of the res, and installed a piece of 2.5" exhaust pipe that I got the local muffler shop to expand to 2.58" ID.

 

[j.o.y.ride]

Did you go wheeling recently? If so did you hit any obstacles underneath the truck?
If the answers to the questions are yes, then I'm pretty sure you have the above problem, I know I did. Exhaust leak drivers side manifold.
When you hit on the Exhaust it can shift the manifold slightly, enough to cause an exhaust leak.
I didn't have to replace the gasket at all, took it out, put a small amount of exhaust gasket sealer on it. Put it back together.
No leak ever since.

Sound is like a diesel fuel pump at idle and low rpm. Sound almost goes away the faster you drive. Power is not affected.

No wheeling recently. Never hit anything in there when wheeling either.

Yes the faster I go on the highway the less I hear it... but then again the more tire noise I get.

I'll have the dealer look it over, would be warranty item and I'm not going to be digging around in there. But good to know that what I kinda maybe thought was it, the exhaust leak has the same symptoms I am having.

 

[PlaceTheBetts]

Just wanted to drop a note here in case any of you all go looking for a solution to a similar/same problem.

I drove to Colorado (about 16 hours one way) and did some wheeling for a couple of days (red cone, old tin cup pass, some other pass, etc). Mostly 2.5 and 3's but old tin cup pass had what I would call a 3.5 section. I turtled and got hung up on my resonator and had to pull rope.

The resonator is dented up pretty good but otherwise everything seemed fine.

Fast forward to the week I get back from CO and I notice a ticking sound from the driver side of the engine that increased with rpms and never really seemed to go away but was worse under load. Sounded to me like an exhaust leak. No reduction in power or other symptoms, just annoying. I was hoping it wasn't some lifter going south so I crossed my fingers and dug into the exhaust system.

First thing I did was verify there was an exhaust leak. I did this by putting my shop vac on reverse and blowing air up the tail pipe. Then I went about spraying soapy water where the catalytic converter marries up to the exhaust manifold. Before I even sprayed the area I could hear air coming out from somewhere in that area. Sure enough, lots of bubbles seemingly by the lower left bolt of the cat bracket.

So, I knew I needed to pull the cat off and see what's up with that.

So I got a 24 hour pass to that Mopar tech site thing to look up the procedure and make sure there wasn't some gotcha. The instructions listed all kind of crap liking removing the drive shaft, cutting off the exhaust, blah blah. I didn't need to actually replace the cat (I hoped) so I figured it'd just loosen and move it enough to see what the problem was.

Steps are easy:
1) Remove bolts holding the y exhaust pipe to the cat pipe.
2) Remove left front tire and splash guard (3 bolts and a few push fittings... Having some trim tools really help here).
3) Disconnect sensor wiring connectors (2)coming off the cat (to give room to move it around).
4) Remove top bolts attaching cat to exhaust header. Bottom bolts don't need to be removed to get the cat off (but will to replace the gasket later).
5) Lift cat up out of bottom bracket and orient it in a way to get out the bottom bolts holding the cat bracket.
6) Remove bottom bolts and bracket and metal gasket will come out with it.

So here's what it looks like before it's all removed:

Here's the bottom bracket still attached but the cat disconnected:

And with the bracket removed along with the gasket, we can clearly see where the exhaust leak was:

Gasket:

Seemed bent where it was leaking:

I cleaned up the exhaust manifold best I could and felt around. Seemed to feel fine but no real way for me to put a straight edge on it nor the cat surface to see if either were warped. Really hoped it was the gasket.

I replaced the gasket with the one I got from Napa auto parts (same part seems to fit 2012 and up v6 wranglers too...part #68093232AA). Buttoned and torque everything back up (24Nm on cat to manifold and 18Nm on y exhaust to cat).

Turned the vac back on and checked for bubbles. No bubbles!

Fired it up and no more ticking! Got everything back together and took it for a spin. Totally quiet.

Took two hours and $32.

I don't know if that gasket was always like that and it just got worse over time or if all that pressure on the resonator caused the cat to move up slightly creating just enough gap. Unsure.

I will be looking into some under carriage armor that covers the resonator area. Not sure if that's what caused this but it's a good excuse to buy it

Hope this helps someone in the future. Ping me if you have any questions.

Sorry to revive an old thread but I'm pretty sure I have this same leak after being tugged off a rock I hi-centered on. Did you use gasket sealant when you installed the new gasket? If so, which one?

 

[the-dude-abides]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I'm pretty sure I have this same leak after being tugged off a rock I hi-centered on. Did you use gasket sealant when you installed the new gasket? If so, which one?

I did not use a gasket sealant. The service manual didn't specify to use one. I just replaced with a new gasket I got from Napa auto parts.

 

[Ridgeline]

Just wanted to thank OP for this post. I turtled on Rocky Gap Road and am having similar symptoms on the passenger side now. Reversed my shop vac into my exhaust and I can hear the breeze. Didn’t soapy water it, but I’m pretty sure I‘m also leaking at this joint. Already ordered the gasket, and hope to have similar results once it arrives. Cheers!

EDIT: I did have one question… it appears you did not replace the bolts from the cat to the header. Any particular reason why not? It would seem to me they might have stretched under the impact.

 

[LiftedrubiconJT]

Just wanted to drop a note here in case any of you all go looking for a solution to a similar/same problem.

I drove to Colorado (about 16 hours one way) and did some wheeling for a couple of days (red cone, old tin cup pass, some other pass, etc). Mostly 2.5 and 3's but old tin cup pass had what I would call a 3.5 section. I turtled and got hung up on my resonator and had to pull rope.

The resonator is dented up pretty good but otherwise everything seemed fine.

Fast forward to the week I get back from CO and I notice a ticking sound from the driver side of the engine that increased with rpms and never really seemed to go away but was worse under load. Sounded to me like an exhaust leak. No reduction in power or other symptoms, just annoying. I was hoping it wasn't some lifter going south so I crossed my fingers and dug into the exhaust system.

First thing I did was verify there was an exhaust leak. I did this by putting my shop vac on reverse and blowing air up the tail pipe. Then I went about spraying soapy water where the catalytic converter marries up to the exhaust manifold. Before I even sprayed the area I could hear air coming out from somewhere in that area. Sure enough, lots of bubbles seemingly by the lower left bolt of the cat bracket.

So, I knew I needed to pull the cat off and see what's up with that.

So I got a 24 hour pass to that Mopar tech site thing to look up the procedure and make sure there wasn't some gotcha. The instructions listed all kind of crap liking removing the drive shaft, cutting off the exhaust, blah blah. I didn't need to actually replace the cat (I hoped) so I figured it'd just loosen and move it enough to see what the problem was.

Steps are easy:
1) Remove bolts holding the y exhaust pipe to the cat pipe.
2) Remove left front tire and splash guard (3 bolts and a few push fittings... Having some trim tools really help here).
3) Disconnect sensor wiring connectors (2)coming off the cat (to give room to move it around).
4) Remove top bolts attaching cat to exhaust header. Bottom bolts don't need to be removed to get the cat off (but will to replace the gasket later).
5) Lift cat up out of bottom bracket and orient it in a way to get out the bottom bolts holding the cat bracket.
6) Remove bottom bolts and bracket and metal gasket will come out with it.

So here's what it looks like before it's all removed:

Here's the bottom bracket still attached but the cat disconnected:

And with the bracket removed along with the gasket, we can clearly see where the exhaust leak was:

Gasket:

Seemed bent where it was leaking:

I cleaned up the exhaust manifold best I could and felt around. Seemed to feel fine but no real way for me to put a straight edge on it nor the cat surface to see if either were warped. Really hoped it was the gasket.

I replaced the gasket with the one I got from Napa auto parts (same part seems to fit 2012 and up v6 wranglers too...part #68093232AA). Buttoned and torque everything back up (24Nm on cat to manifold and 18Nm on y exhaust to cat).

Turned the vac back on and checked for bubbles. No bubbles!

Fired it up and no more ticking! Got everything back together and took it for a spin. Totally quiet.

Took two hours and $32.

I don't know if that gasket was always like that and it just got worse over time or if all that pressure on the resonator caused the cat to move up slightly creating just enough gap. Unsure.

I will be looking into some under carriage armor that covers the resonator area. Not sure if that's what caused this but it's a good excuse to buy it

Hope this helps someone in the future. Ping me if you have any questions.

Did you have a fluttering sound on acceleration when you had your leak?

 

[tommyp]

I'd be careful reversing a shop vac. I guess anything blown in would probably be caught in the cat but as an alternative you can just have someone put a rag and their hand over the exhaust exit while you are under it and adding jsut a bit of back pressure will show obvious exhaust leaks. I had a mechanic who did inspections that always did this. I had to weld up a new muffler because its seams were leaking when the exhaust was choked a bit. Great mechanic but most people I know stopped taking their cars to him for inspections. He was extra meticulous.

 

[Brahmajoe]

Just wanted to drop a note here in case any of you all go looking for a solution to a similar/same problem.

I drove to Colorado (about 16 hours one way) and did some wheeling for a couple of days (red cone, old tin cup pass, some other pass, etc). Mostly 2.5 and 3's but old tin cup pass had what I would call a 3.5 section. I turtled and got hung up on my resonator and had to pull rope.

The resonator is dented up pretty good but otherwise everything seemed fine.

Fast forward to the week I get back from CO and I notice a ticking sound from the driver side of the engine that increased with rpms and never really seemed to go away but was worse under load. Sounded to me like an exhaust leak. No reduction in power or other symptoms, just annoying. I was hoping it wasn't some lifter going south so I crossed my fingers and dug into the exhaust system.

First thing I did was verify there was an exhaust leak. I did this by putting my shop vac on reverse and blowing air up the tail pipe. Then I went about spraying soapy water where the catalytic converter marries up to the exhaust manifold. Before I even sprayed the area I could hear air coming out from somewhere in that area. Sure enough, lots of bubbles seemingly by the lower left bolt of the cat bracket.

So, I knew I needed to pull the cat off and see what's up with that.

So I got a 24 hour pass to that Mopar tech site thing to look up the procedure and make sure there wasn't some gotcha. The instructions listed all kind of crap liking removing the drive shaft, cutting off the exhaust, blah blah. I didn't need to actually replace the cat (I hoped) so I figured it'd just loosen and move it enough to see what the problem was.

Steps are easy:
1) Remove bolts holding the y exhaust pipe to the cat pipe.
2) Remove left front tire and splash guard (3 bolts and a few push fittings... Having some trim tools really help here).
3) Disconnect sensor wiring connectors (2)coming off the cat (to give room to move it around).
4) Remove top bolts attaching cat to exhaust header. Bottom bolts don't need to be removed to get the cat off (but will to replace the gasket later).
5) Lift cat up out of bottom bracket and orient it in a way to get out the bottom bolts holding the cat bracket.
6) Remove bottom bolts and bracket and metal gasket will come out with it.

So here's what it looks like before it's all removed:

Here's the bottom bracket still attached but the cat disconnected:

And with the bracket removed along with the gasket, we can clearly see where the exhaust leak was:

Gasket:

Seemed bent where it was leaking:

I cleaned up the exhaust manifold best I could and felt around. Seemed to feel fine but no real way for me to put a straight edge on it nor the cat surface to see if either were warped. Really hoped it was the gasket.

I replaced the gasket with the one I got from Napa auto parts (same part seems to fit 2012 and up v6 wranglers too...part #68093232AA). Buttoned and torque everything back up (24Nm on cat to manifold and 18Nm on y exhaust to cat).

Turned the vac back on and checked for bubbles. No bubbles!

Fired it up and no more ticking! Got everything back together and took it for a spin. Totally quiet.

Took two hours and $32.

I don't know if that gasket was always like that and it just got worse over time or if all that pressure on the resonator caused the cat to move up slightly creating just enough gap. Unsure.

I will be looking into some under carriage armor that covers the resonator area. Not sure if that's what caused this but it's a good excuse to buy it

Hope this helps someone in the future. Ping me if you have any questions.

What Mopar tech site?

 

[snazzi_scarlett]

Was yours a consistent tick or more intermittent and pronounced in 3/4th gear under light throttle/load?

 

[JTenn]

@snazzi_scarlett I had the EXACT same thing happen as the OP. Hung up on BIG rocks, smashed the muffler, broke a hanger and ripped out of the resonator hanger. Immediately I could hear the "ticking sound" from the driver side manifold. I fabbed and installed a new hanger, reattached the resonator hanger bracket and replaced the manifold gasket. The ticking was most evident on a cold start when the engine is idled up higher than once warmed up, although I could always hear it when parked and idling. It was never a gear or speed related sound. Actually couldn't hear it at all on the road. One other thing I noticed was I could smell exhaust fumes when the gasket was leaking.

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