New converter, new mounts followed by Vibrration, Oil leak...

[SaveMyVibe]

Hi, we getting very frustrated with trying to fix our used -to be- worry free 2007Vibe that my wife really needs still!
Last year we had exhaust line replaced, due to rust.
It still smelled bad in the car, rumbled and drove poorly. So back to the same shop:
they found a hole at that sort off bottleneck place of the cat, where the heat shield used to be.
The new converter installed (1100$), after that the Vibe developed some vibration.
It got worse and worse, check engine light was on,and my wife brought the car back to the garage.
The garage then cleared the codes (when asked they referred to them as "a bunch of codes emissions related"),
and stated vibration comes from the engine due to the 3 older motor mounts...
$900, All mounts done, the car was in the shop for 3 days,
my wife was using taxis and calling the mechanics daily, with little response.
After she picked up the car, 5 miles later, she had to pull over to the nearest garage due to oil light,
an oil leak happened, that required a new valve gasket plus oil change at $400!...
Now after all that work (and $) Vibe vibrates terribly in reverse, and in D, coming to a turn or at a stop.
The engine developed all kinds of metallic clicking ticking and noise, maybe pinging, she is not sure
after being just great for 15 years..There is also tapping or dull rhythmic noise when accelerating,
that stops only if you release gas pedal.
The garage after 2 more visits and wife's request to check the engine including oil leak reasons,
basically saying they cannot do anything else to improve the vibration. Engine noise they ignored, saying it is the same.
Any thoughts? what do we check and where do we start ?
My wife tried another garage but they kept the car for the whole day and gave it back, w/o much help..
What is going on? She also said that Vibe is hitting every bump on the road hard(railroad is the worst) and handles weird...

[jolt]

After spending more on repairs then the car is worth to make it like new, you have ask yourself; is it time to buy a new car?

[andrewclaus]

I may have an answer for a small part of the problem. I replaced the exhaust system aft of the cat because a joint broke, and the new resonator sounds different than the original. I can hear exhaust noise that sound like small explosions/pinging when accelerating. It sounds fine otherwise.

Without the actual trouble codes, or any engine diagnostics, it would just be guessing what the other problems are. Perhaps there's an engine failure that's blowing oil into the exhaust and that ruined the cat.

[SaveMyVibe]

After spending more on repairs then the car is worth to make it like new, you have ask yourself; is it time to buy a new car?

There is no option for a new car in our current budget. The Vibe with 100000 miles 2 month ago was worth about 10 grand in our area. Anything cheaper than 20 000 has the same mileage and unknown to us issues, we are trying to determine whether there is something we missed here.

[SaveMyVibe]

I may have an answer for a small part of the problem. I replaced the exhaust system aft of the cat because a joint broke, and the new resonator sounds different than the original. I can hear exhaust noise that sound like small explosions/pinging when accelerating. It sounds fine otherwise.

Without the actual trouble codes, or any engine diagnostics, it would just be guessing what the other problems are. Perhaps there's an engine failure that's blowing oil into the exhaust and that ruined the cat.

Update from this week, my wife went to the dealership in town where she is working currently , they checked cooling system and codes, tried to adjust mounts but that did nothing. Would they miss engine failure? New converter does not throw any codes so far?
The whole issue started after mounts were installed , and seem to worsen daily...