Exhaust leak

[Kazimodo]

Some days nothing works ...
for a long time now ,( over a year) I've had exhaust noise
from the rear of the car , I knew there was another donut
back there like the one I change in the front , yesterday
I decided to do it .
got the donut , part number : 17451-23042
said no to the 2 bolts ( mistake)
when I did the front , I bought the 2 bolts
but they where not so bad ,
so I tought the rear ones would be OK
I broke one ,even with liquid wrench on it snap!
car well designed slide muffler off the rubber supports
and bring to vise to work on broken bolt.
redrilled , retaped , 10 X 1.25 thread , got a
regular 10X1.25 bolt at auto part ,( 2$ )
reassemble evrything , and the big roar is still there
next day drive for an hour , should be enough for new donut
to sit properly , but no, still the big roar of the 1500 cc engine.
.
roll under , put a small mirror in the area of the donut , then
the mirror got all foggy when I put it 6 inches away from the
donut , hot air from a leak ,under a small plate ,welded to the
tail pipe, bring inside to see better ,just under
the small welded plate that serves an unknown mysterious purpuse
were 2 holes big as the nail on your index finger , remove plate
and using and old piece of exhaust pipe that was too big,
I made a patch , got 2 U-clamps and I should be OK for 2-3 years .
.
What is the prupose of the mysterious plate ????

[taka]

Great repair. That plate look like a heat shield for that flex hose (brake?) just on top of the exhaust pipe on your photo. You may have to put some other shielding in place just in case.