Your Aston Martin is a high-performance machine, and the last thing you need is a cracked exhaust manifold. Aside from the manifold cracking, Lucas Auto Care advises that the manifold’s gasket can crack. Heat is the most common cause of either crack, so if you are driving the Aston Martin when the engine is too hot, you run a high risk of creating the following problems.
Sputtering Engine Performance
The exhaust manifold takes the exhaust created in the combustion chamber and pushes it through to the catalytic converter. If the manifold cracks and exhaust starts to leak out of it, it will fill the Aston Martin’s engine with exhaust gases that will cause the performance to sputter and lag.
Reduced Fuel Performance
As if this weren’t bad enough, the fuel economy that your Aston Martin gets will tank – sorry, pun intended. An efficient engine uses less fuel to produce power, but because the engine is filled with exhaust gases and running inefficiently, it will use more fuel to produce power.
Hissing or Tapping Engine Noises
We recommend that you listen carefully when you first fire up your Aston Martin because you may hear hissing or tapping noises coming from the engine. These noises are created by leaking exhaust. Start-up is the best time to hear the noises because the manifold has not expanded and sealed the crack.
Burning Plastic or Rubber Odors
Another sign that you’ve got a leaking manifold or gasket is the odor of burning rubber or plastic coming from the engine. As you know, the combustion chamber produces a ton of heat. As such, the exhaust is scorching as it leaks into the engine. It is so hot that it can melt rubber or plastic engine parts.
Noticeably Strong Exhaust Odors
We do not recommend that you drive your Aston Martin if the manifold or gasket is cracked. The reason why is that the ventilation system can pick up some of the exhaust gases leaking into the engine and push them into the passenger cabin. This means you will be inhaling the exhaust as you drive.
Illuminated Check Engine Light
Finally, the engine control module is going to receive warnings from system sensors that things are not right in the engine. The module cannot correct the problem by sealing the manifold crack. As such, it will turn on the check engine light so you know something is wrong with your Aston Martin’s engine.
Lucas Auto Care in Cypress, TX, would be happy to help, so bring your Aston Martin to our shop today if you suspect the exhaust manifold is leaking.
