quantfutur

Have a 2005 RX 330 and took car for service last week - brakes and they tightened exhaust/tail pipe. Day after service, heard rattle only at hightway 55mph+. Took it to shop and they removed some stones from muffler and tightened the end. Still rattling. Brought car back again today; now they say resonator (mid piece with pipe) is completely rusted and should be replaced. This is a 2k+ job; car has 105k miles. (I am suspicious of this shop because also told me needed struts and got 2 more opinions and both said struts are fine...) But brought it back to them because they had worked on the muffler last week. After hearing this, I called a couple of muffler places and will get 2nd and 3rd opinions; they both said over the phone that it is unusual to see resonator go at that mileage. Also said may be able to weld it or it could just be the heat exhaust plate attached to resonator that needs tightening or replacement.
Anyone with experience of replacing the middle (intake) resonator and related pipe, and if so, at what mileage? Any cheap fixes available? Btw, car has been garaged.

kiwi

cheap fix would be to remove it. i doubt it changes the sound very much anyway.

take it to an exhaust shop for a 2nd opinion, if they agree its gone bad, have them cut it out and get them to install a plain piece of pipe. should cost less than a 100 bucks.

or get them to install an aftermarket resonator, no one will see it so who cares how it looks.

quantfutur

Thanks, Kiwi. I will mention your suggestions when I go to the muffler shop today for an inspect/opinion on the resonator. Btw, does having a bad resonator affect the catalytic converter? Just wondering because I had a bad cat. in my '99 RX 300 at about 155k...

quantfutur

Took car to a local muffler shop and they said resonator is fine - no rust. The 'rattle' is being caused by several spots on the plastic underbody shields, which have been either 'ripped' by carelessness or losing shape and flapping a bit from age. So I spent $20 getting the heat shield to cat. conv. removed, as it is causing most of the rattle and is too loose to be effective, instead of $2000 for a new resonator - that I do not need.

In the course of one week I was told I need about $4k of work for bogus problems. Got educated. From now on I will get at least one additional opinion when anything other than tires or brakes or battery is recommended.

lex_rx

Was that with a lexus dealer with rust diagnosis?