Richmond car, truck or SUV is getting louder? Time to have your exhaust system checked

Are the neighbors on your Richmond street

giving you 'looks' because your car, truck

or SUV is getting louder? Could be time

to have your exhaust system checked.

A relaxing cruise on the roads of Richmond, or areas around town, can calm your nerves after a busy day. If it’s not too hot, you can have the window down and enjoy a fresh breeze flowing in the window. Maybe you’ll stream the melodic notes of one of your favorite musicians. It’s like a little slice of paradise.

The last thing you want is something to inhibit the peace and tranquility of the moment. Just such an interference could come rumbling up from under your car, truck or SUV.

If you ran snow tires in the winter, and haven’t bothered to change them, that annoying rumble may come from your tires. If something part is loose, you may have a rattle more than a rumble. If a belt is loose under the hood, you could have a high-pitched squeal that will hit you like fingernails on a chalkboard. But the real rumble may come from your exhaust system.

The exhaust system on your vehicle starts with one set of the valves in your engine – the exhaust valves. In the four-stroke system of the internal combustion engine, as the pistons move down in the cylinders, the intake valves are open allowing a mixture of gasoline and air into the cylinder. When the pistons move back to the top, and all valves are closed, that mix of gasoline and air is compressed into a highly volatile state just waiting for the sparkplugs to ignite an explosion.

That explosion shoves the pistons back down the cylinder. When the piston rises again, the exhaust valve is open and the smoke of the late explosion is expelled. The burnt offering of the engine is channeled down a series of pipes that meet in one or two pipes that conduct the detritus of the explosion back under the vehicle and through a catalytic converter and a muffler or two.

The result of that system is relative quiet, considering how much of a racket would escape the engine without an exhaust system. In fact, the exhaust system is designed to create the right amount of backflow pressure to maximize the performance of the vehicle. 

If the exhaust system is in bad shape, if it’s rotted or broken, it may effect the way the engine runs. But it will definitely leave you listening to a louder and louder engine. At some point, it could be almost deafening. But, long before that, usually, you may find that you’re turning up the radio more and more not realizing that you’re trying to hear over the engine’s failing exhaust system.

When the engine reaches a point where it is loud enough, you can even receive a ticket from a friendly Richmond law officer, or a constable from a neighboring community.

The solution? Have your exhaust system checked. For convenience sake, you may do this the next time you bring the vehicle in for an oil change, which should occur on a regular and timely basis.