Older Vehicles - Part 1

As vehicles age, it's no surprise the amount wear and tear increases.  Nothing seems to be made to last anymore.  The more a vehicle is driven, the quicker parts will meet their end of life compare to similar vehicles with lower mileage.

As an example, our 2008 Chrysler Aspen with the 4.7L has 238K miles on it.  For years it has sounded like it deserved a better place on a dirt track with a loud exhaust.  What I thought was a leaking exhaust manifold was actually the catalytic converter on the passenger side had separated from the top of the canister.  It was pretty surprising to see that it didn't even appear it was welded together.  I ended up welding the can back together for a temporary fix until I can source a new exhaust.  One interesting thing about this is that for a few years, all the while this has been going on, the instrument cluster always displayed something about the fuel cap over the odometer.  I even replaced the tube going to the tank which didn't fix the issue.  Fast forward to finally attempting to dealing with this exhaust leak, that fixed the message to check the gas cap.  How odd is that? 

Upon taking off the manifold is when I discovered the real cause of the loud exhaust:

Ever wondered what the inside of a catalytic converter looks like?  Here you go:

I didn't get a close up of the top of the catalytic converter, but it appears that it was merely pinch-welded into place rather than welded:

Here is the completed job.  I could only tack weld around the catalytic converter to keep it from warping.  I couldn't reach behind the cat either, so, at an attempt to seal it, I applied J-B Weld.  Horrible job and it didn't really work.  The exhaust will be replaced eventually, but it doesn't sound loud any more: