So, Im outside this afternoon tinkering with the 7, gettin rid of the emissions junk when I see that the shutter valve has been disconnected and the valve is just free to flap around.
I took off the carb to see whats going on, and sure enough it is just sitting there in the closed position. It flaps open no problem, but this definately isnt something I wanted to see.
My guess is that the exhaust is at least 10 years old, and the shutter valve was probably disconnected back then, if not longer ago.
The car has 138 000 kms on it (or about 81 000 miles for you southerners) and seems to have been driven only about 5 000 miles in the last 10 years. Hopefully there hasnt been a problem for too many miles of driving..but...

I am just doing a once over on the car, but this really isnt something I liked seeing. Im just wondering if this could have caused much damage to the car.

Since it didnt seem too bad when I drove it home, I dont think any major damage has been caused, but my guess is in the worst case scenario, its been acting up for upto 15 000 miles.... leaning out the rear rotor a bit and whatnot. I dont know exactly what to make of it, I guess Ill just put it all back together after fixing the shutter valve, but what would you guys do if you found such a thing???
Should I just forget about it???

 

Don't get flustered. Put it back together and check the power, maybe even the compression.