So yesterday night, I left from work last night and found frost on my car. I turned it over, and let her warm up for about 5-10 minutes. Then I cruised around for awhile, not driving to hard on it but did get on it from time to time to show off, nothing out of the ordinary. So then I get this loud clanking type sound from the rear. It started the day before but went away, I thought it was just the exhaust muffler seeing as when I kicked it I would get that rattling sound, so I didnt think much of fit. But it came back later in my cruising around, so just to be safe I dropped off my girl and headed home. When I got home and was putting the girl to sleep I heard a sizzling sound from the rear. Kneeled down and the driver side exhaust was steaming and hissing. It also looked pretty moist. Now I am starting to get worried, I didnt notice any low oil preasure, the guage kept in the right range. So I slept on it, got up this morning and headed to work. It was about 30 degrees out, I had her in the garage so there wasnt any more frost. As I pulled out I started hearing a ticking sound from the engine. I let it idle some and it you could hear it. I reved it between idle and 2k to see if the tone of the ticking would speed up but it just kept the same pace. I drove to work with the ticking sound never going away. I parked infront of my work place, couldnt hear any rattle like I did the previous day and there wasnt any type of hissing sound from the exhaust. Get off from work 6 hours later, pretty warm day, and the rattling, hissing, and ticking sound is gone. I am thinking it could be just condensation from the chill that night, but I have drivin the car in colder conditions and havent had any problems like this. Is this something I should worry about or was there just a little water being held up?

 

Did the exhaust smell like coolant at all when it was steaming?

 

I couldn't tell you, alergies have me down so bad I can barely breathe. That's why I was hoping some one had an identical situation or knew of something like this that could tell me where to start. I dont like the idea of taking off my heads as I dont have a torque wrench laying around anymore nor the money to buy one.

 

Rule out the obvious exhaust leak first. It sounds like it could just be that. If you said you kicked your exhaust and it rattled, something there should tell you that it is loose. It's probably just condensation building up from a small exhaust leak.