I really need to find out! I am doing a story for my Drivers ED class, and there are no good answers on the internet! And really, I hardly know anything about cars, so if you have to use words such as differential, or muffler, please at least tell me what they are. Thank you! :)
Depending on where in the exhaust the hole is located. If it is before or in the catalytic converter that will make it illegal. The catalytic converter you could say filters some of the unwanted emission to the air (its doesn't really filter it is done thru chemical reaction). And if the hole is located before or on the muffler it might be illegal. Muffler muffles the exhaust sound and over a certain loudness (Db) it is illegal.
first off all the exhaust gas is designed to go out the end of your tailpipe(end of the exhaust system) depending on where the hole is it can mess up the computer(if your car has one)allow carbon monoxide(burnt hydrocarbons i.e. gas and air)to enter your vehicle(enough of which will kill you-not good) and not keep the proper back pressure in the exhaust system(designed to help your engine run better) also it can sound loud and you get a ticket for improper equipment(major sucks)-have fun in Drivers Ed and earn that insurance decrease in payment and the proper manner to operate a moving vehicle
most modern cars today have fuel injection, this is controlled by a computer the fuel injection meters a special mixture of fuel and air into the intake. which goes into the combustion chamber of the engine, as the piston compresses this fuel / air mix, a spark plug fires a spark the mix explodes pushing the piston down. This is what makes the power for the car to move. Each time the fuel and air combust, there is exhaust that is made up of many hot gasses, these flow out the exhaust system usually through an exhaust pipe to a catalytic converter, which is like a small furnace to help burn any unburned fuel particles so that less polluting exhaust gases go from the cat, to the muffler to keep the engine quiet out the tailpipe to the back of the car. The reason exhaust gases go out the exhaust pipe to the back is that the gases have carbon monoxide which is poisionous . If a small leak develops in an exhaust system, it can leak the hot exhaust into the body of the car, which can cause brain damage long term. A small exhaust leak will rapidly get bigger, the exhaust gasses are so hot, they will blowtorch a hole and burn the metal pipe more and more, leaking more hot poisionous gases into the body of the car. Its best to fix leaky pipes,or mufflers before they get really big. Mufflers, rust from the inside out. When you turn off the car, the hot engine will suck moisture into the exhaust system where some water collects in the muffler baffling which is usually metal. Over time this rusts the muffler, until the metal gets thin, and a hole starts to get bigger. well I hope this gives you enough to work with, good luck
