CitroJim wrote:Simon, I've just looked at my new back-box down at dad's..
It's fine except the tailpipes are even more crooked than the one I have currently fitted
Have you looked at yours yet?
Yes we looked at it today, and apart from a dent in the front flange from rough handling during shipping that needs straightening out it looked ok.
Unfortunately there is more than just the back box leaking - the pipe from the centre muffler has a hole the size of a pinky finger about 1cm from the flange facing in an upwards direction where most of the noise is coming from.
We chickened out of swapping the muffler and attempting to weld the pipe today, well I chickened out that is - Richard was game but then he's a glutton for punishment who will give anything a go.
We think we had enough bits and pieces including some flanges with stubs that I already had which probably would have worked but the weather packed up in a big way hence the chickening out. There was actually heavy flooding on the drive home so we did the right thing!
In the meantime it has a Halfords bandage wrapped around it to quieten it down a bit, and a wire loop to support the pipe by the muffler hangers should the pipe decide to break! We also noticed that the infamous weld on the cat tail is crumbling somewhat and could be on the way out too.
Unfortunately with the house situation in turmoil and us back to house viewings I just can't take the car off the road at the moment so the exhaust will need to limp by until it breaks or until we're moved in somewhere... Either that or I buy a new centre section silencer as well so we can do a quick swap of the whole lot rather than a long drawn out welding repair.
I also took Richard for a test drive to see if he could help identify the rattle from the front right suspension - which naturally couldn't be provoked at first!
We're reasonably sure that it's not drop-links because on a rippled country road that apparently normally rattles droplinks badly it was silent.
Finally we found a spot of rough bumpy gravel surface that exhibited the noise - it only happens when turning on right lock and while we're still yet to confirm it through visual inspection I think Richard agrees that it's probably the bottom swivel joint based on the noise and odd behaviour. Drat! At least I already have two new ones of those...
) could probably weld a patch on either side of the pipe covering the join with the pipe on the car, which would then give it a much longer life - even if the joint breaks / leaks the pipe will not fall off 