finleyf88•12d agoProlific Poster

My uncle swore by putting a potato in the exhaust to stop a vacuum leak

He told me back in 2018 that shoving a raw potato over a hole in the muffler would get me home without the engine cutting out. I tried it on my '97 F-150 after a pothole cracked the pipe, and it actually held pressure for about 10 miles. Has anyone else heard of weird temporary fixes that somehow work better than you'd expect?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_dixon12d ago

97 Ford trucks are tough but dang they react weird to the smallest exhaust issues. That potato thing is wild, I've heard of people using a crushed soda can and hose clamps to patch a hole in the muffler on a Camry, it lasted like 80 miles of back road driving before it rattled off. How long did your fix actually hold, and did you have to keep slowing down to stuff another potato in there every 10 miles, or did it just burn out completely after that first run?

grant_hart11d ago

Man that crushed soda can trick is honestly a classic, I've seen it hold on a lot longer than you'd think if you use the thick hose clamps from a hardware store not the thin auto parts ones. The potato thing though, it burned out completely within maybe 20 miles on that old Ford, the heat just turned it into ash and it puffed out as fine powder. I tried putting a raw one in once when I was out of ideas and it actually made the exhaust smell like baked potatoes for a solid hour before it disintegrated, which was weird but not helpful. For longer fixes on those trucks, a piece of aluminum gutter tape wrapped tight with wire can survive a couple hundred miles easy, I've done that on a 96 F-150. That Camry story is gold though, a crushed can really does work if the hole is small, I've used a flattened beer can with JB Weld and it held for three months until I sold the car.