So I went to a shop today, I spent a whopping 20$ for them to put new bolts into the flange area. And that solved that annoying issue. So while driving home I noticed rattling, I heard this before but not as well because of the leak. I also have pieces falling out of my exhaust... So how bad is this issue, It doesn't seem to have clogged anything yet but is that just bound to happen? Seems off on power still at low rpms and idle is choppy with a miss. I'm thinking it's becoming clogged, can I go whap the exhaust with a crowbar and knock it loose? No more money for my z the next couple of weeks so I need a temp fix that's not very time consuming.

 

What pieces are falling out of the exhaust - pieces of the cat converter ceramic substrate? Sounds like it's breaking up and blowing out the exhaust. Doesn't sound like it's plugging up.

 

yeah.... sounds like your cats are falling apart from the inside. crowbar might not be a good idea. do you have any exhaust mods done? one idea would be pull the exhaust from back of the cat off and look inside it. from there you could drive anything through the cat to break up the inside and then vacuum it out. this is only temporary and probably not a good idea if you have emissions anytime soon. youre exhaust will smell a bit different too after you do this