Got a phone call from a friend who is looking to buy a used 1990 Civc
with 100K.
MT and the car has been well maintained. The seller says the cat
converter is
"going bad and the exhaust is blowing by the converter".

I doubted that even being posible unitl I looked at my service manual.
I see that the
exhaust manifold goes to " EX pipe A" which connects to "MIDDLE EX
PIPE" which
is fastened to the cat converter with a set of bolts that are spring
loadd.

Could exhaust gas bypass a clogged converter in this manor?

I will be taking a look at this car Friday afternoon and thought I
would ask if anyone in
the group has seen this before. My first thought was the gasket had
failed, or the middle
exhaust pipe had cracked. I haven't done any work that far up the
exhaust train since I
quite ridding motorcycles. Seeing a set of spring loaded bolts holding
the converter to the
middle exhaust pipe surprised me.

I plan using a longish tube to listen for the leak to pin point it. I
don't think it wise to try to
feel for hot exhaust gasses.

Terry