Cardboard: The new duct tape

I should open up an auto body shop.  Who needs welders when you’ve got cardboard to solve your automotive troubles!

Ever since I bought the GTI I’ve had this nasty exhaust rattle that drives me crazy.  My friend and I figured the exhaust pipe was shaking under WOT against the bottom of the rear bumper.  The clearance was like 1cm; a reasonable striking distance of exhaust shakage.

Problem was, the exhaust is suspended by a rubber hanger that’s fixed to two welded points; one on the frame, one on the muffler.  So I needed to make some space between the rubber hanger and the frame.  You can see here; that hanger is happily not letting go of those two hooks:

Enter Cardboard

So I devised (tore off) some little cardboard shims (folded cardboard) that I could insert between the welded hooks and the rubber hanger, thereby granting a tiny bit of clearance between muffler and bumper.  Yes, cardboard is flammable.  I know this.  But even while running hot, the area around the rubber hanger does not reach paper-burning temperatures.

Installation

If only all auto repairs were this easy.  I just pulled down the muffler, creating gaps between the hanger and hook, and slipped in the cardboard shims.  The tension on the rubber hanger holds the cardboard in place.

Before and After

It doesn’t look like much, but those extra couple millimeters have resolved my annoying muffler vibration.  Plus, the cardboard acts as a shock absorber and prevents excess travel into the bumper.  I can go full throttle, rattle-free.

Before

After

Work Complete

I estimate this job took me 13 minutes.  At Tim’s Auto Body, you would be charged for the full hour.

Agent Sea Foam

For those of us who feel guilty for not having the time or knowledge to actually fix our cars, we can find respite at Kragen with a shelf full of automotive panaceas in the form of fuel additives.  Most are advertised to restore lost power, improve fuel economy, and replace your burnt out tail light.  If you’re lucky, you’ll see some fat horsepower gains OMG!!  And although I’m a skeptic, I fall into that bracket of people who come home after a long day of work, give a guilty glance at their car, and go upstairs to play WoW.

So I bought some Sea Foam to treat my old 84 Rabbit GTI.  I’d like to think that Sea Foam was a cut above the other super serius race breed of fuel injector zaniness, if not for the bevy of supporting forum posts, then for the dire warnings on the back of the can.  Anything that says “Exhaust fumes will be extreme for a short period” has got my money. 

This can is all business

So I bought two cans and did the full treatment: First can went into the fuel tank after a fill up like any other additive — I didn’t notice much improvement after running a full tank of the stuff.  Second can was the more serious operation, with half of it going into my engine oil, and the other half going directly into my vacuum system.  The latter procedure was the most extreme, but actually provided a noticeable benefit.  Here’s the procedure:

Step 1: With vehicle running, find suitable vacuum hose that feeds into the intake manifold

Step 2: After transferring to a clean, clear container, use vacuum line to suck Sea Foam into the system

Step 3: Poison your neighborhood

Results

Yeah, so the Sea Foam guys weren’t lying — exhaust was extreme.  People in the neighborhood were perplexed (“his car is on fire and he’s taking pictures of it?”), so I quickly drove out of there.  While making my escape, I noticed some real improvements.

I’m trying to be objective here and avoid the common “effort in must equal reward” factor, but I really did notice improvement in engine smoothness and a more linear RPM “decay curve”.  Where normally the GTI would stutter a bit after shifting up and releasing the clutch, or takeup would be a little rough, the whole process goes down with less complaining. 

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the old VW doesn’t drive any faster.  But honestly, any 1% variance in horsepower is outside of my vague butt-dyno accuracy.  I still need to change the oil now that it’s been seafoamed, so it’s possible there are more long term benefits to be unlocked.

While it may not be the automotive panacea, the GTI generally runs better and complains less; I would recommend Sea Foam (especially the vacuum line treatment).  And more importantly, $9 at Kragen and an hour of my morning just bought me a couple weeks of guilt free WoW.