I think I have an exhaust leak but I'm not sure. When I'm driving by a wall or traffic slowly, when my engine is under some load (under 2000 RPM or so) I hear a quick ticking sound echoing from my car. Is that an exhaust leak?

 

Sounds like an exhaust leak to me. Best way to spot where the leak is coming from that I know of is to either dump oil down the intake with the car running and look for the smoke (you can actually suck small amounts of atf through the pcv hose) or look for a dark spot on your exhaust pipe. Most leaks happen at seams and junctions; I would highly doubt you would have a leak in a solid piece of pipe on such a new car.

 

This sounds like my exhaust leak. I could only hear it when going WOT at a low rpm in 4th gear. I could hear mine on the passenger side, so I knew where to start.
I retightened all my manifold bolts, and the ticking is gone. I'd start there -it's a free fix if it helps the problem.

 

What do you torque them too?

 

Mine started ticking after I put a new muffler on.

 

maybe its something else then...

 

Not necessarily -maybe the new muffler caused more backpressure, which made the ticking more evident.

IIRC I torqued them to 30 ft/lbs.


edit
I searched for torque exhaust manifold in titles and came up with confirmation of the 30 foot/lbs