exaust blowing
Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 12:29 am
or at least when the engine's cold it sounds a lot deeper. Do you think this is anything to worry about?
Give your pipework a good inspection
At least that one left the car mostly drivable - i've had other dodgy exhaust problems that left it hanging on the ground. This way, there's still enough of the pipe going into the silencer to hold the whole lot together. Just makes an enormous noise.
Why did I leave it? Well apart from being a poor student, I thought it was the return of another problem I'd had, which took months to manifest, the two parts of the underchassis pipe (like, where the part connected to the cat joins onto the part connected to the silencer) broke free of the mounting (didn't notice) and stressed the join where they're jubilee clipped together. Eventually it completely went and one was simply sitting inside the other unsecured and very loose. Was a bit noisy, but nothing terrible - until, roughly every other trip til I got it sorted, a bump or a sharp takeoff would jolt the one out of the other. Then it would run unsilenced, and the front of the backbox pipe would be dragging loudly on the ground too - tilting forwards no less, so its a miracle it never caught a pothole and sheared completely off the rubber mounts holding the box up.
Got that fixed first of all at a place in Bangor for a fiver, took the bloke all of four minutes including getting the car up on the jack, looking, finding the part in the office and fitting. Bargain, and didn't give me any trouble until the box went. Then that was fixed for rather more money (fifty quid?) in Birmingham. The guys didn't use enough of whatever strange sealing stuff they used on the middle joint (or didn't tighten the clip enough) and it started blowing the very next day, but in the end it was sorted.
The middle support was never replaced, but regardless after that, I had no more trouble with the middle section...
On a sidetrack, non-noisy/non-blowy - Something different occured recently when the rubber mounts themselves just perished after about a decade of abuse, and the backbox itself dropped because of this. Didn't hit the ground but ended up about an inch from the road on a very weak, springy support (ie all the pipework from the manifold and catalyser down!). Was on the way to work at the time and freaked when it came free at 60mph and made a thud and clangy noises. After figuring out the prob, limped in 10 mins late at 20mph. Luckily the boss had some wire ties in his Jeep (for just the same problem!) to keep it off the floor temporarily, and next day, two fresh mounts from halfords were about £1.70 each.
Think that escapade may have damaged the manifold though, which is why my (exhaust) gasket has developed another leak. Sounds like a beetle driving sewing machine operator farting through a box of scissors when I floor it
Enough info for ya? Basically look over it and try to judge the nature of the problem. Most of it wont be too tricky or expensive to fix - the supports and join were mere minutes and a fiver or so each. The back box, fifty quid and a half day. Fixing the manifold, thats about twenty pounds and a couple of hours tops (because at that price the labour cant be much!)
Oh yeah. And stay away from the temporary fixing things you might see in the petrol station or halfords. Gun gum, metal wraps, the silver heatproof tape, all that sh**e. I spent at least twenty quid and far too much time and effort wriggled under my car applying that stuff, only to have it fail me 10 miles down the road, and the mechanic repairing it for the same price (and less hassle) later on to look at it sadly, shaking his head and whispering "you muppet...".
