Lovely and dramatic it was. Bombing along the back roads at 60, just heard a little tinkling sound, then a clatter and the biggest racket I have ever heard from a car. I knew what it was, perhaps the beauty of having owned a Charade before.
The exhaust had snapped where the pipe meets the Cat. Luckily the Cat has a curved edge so with a bit of care I managed to limp home 2 miles with the majority of the exhaust threatening to dig into the ground at any time, but it didnt - the leading edge is worn badly though where it was dragging the road.
Problem was, I had to be at work in 40 mins so a quick look showed the remaining pipe from the mainifold was secure and nowhere near the ground so I opted to slice the two rubber mounts off and wiggle the whole system off which I managed to do after jacking the car quite high. I can salvage the tail pipe section but the system is only in two bits and it is the expensive bit, maybe £180 or so, so happy new year Stu.
Drove it to work OK, its a bit down on power and the noise is epic as it is totally unsilenced - being a 3 cyl it does sound ever so slightly like a Merlin at certain revs, the trick to keeping the racket down is keep the revs up and go light on throttle. I felt very foolish driving through town, I dont know how these people with drainpipes on their cars can drive in public, I hated it, everyone looks.
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>>and the noise is epic
Had exhaust failure on a Nissan Laurel back in the day (straight-6) where I had to remove the middle/rear sections to get home.
Sounded so fruity I went along the backroads with the windows down.
Gutless without the pipe attached but race-car noises aplenty.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat - possibly due to the carbon monoxide getting into the cabin but anyways....
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>> I dont know how these people with drainpipes on their cars can drive in public, I hated it, everyone looks.
It's terrible driving a Bentley, because a lot of people look. When both downpipes break off and it sounds like an Edwardian Zeppelin-engined racer - no significant power loss either with fifties technology - everyone stares and looks horrified, disgusted, alarmed or amused. I know this from personal experience. Even I have been embarrassed once or twice.
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I well remember the look of disgust on the face of the boy racer who was pulled by Edinburghs finest as I drove past them and the police car that had pulled him for a defective silencer making far more noise - but quite legally as my rudimentary exhaust was complete.
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I am hoping not to attract the blue light attention, though thankfully living in a low crime area you almost never see a police car except on a Krispy Kreme run :-)
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>> quite legally as my rudimentary exhaust was complete.
'Fishtail... Mmmmmm!' (Homer Simpson)
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Had a 14 litre 6 pot Cummins exhaust break off at the turbo, it wasn't actually too noisy to use just gave a deep throaty rumble like a second world war bomber, however the howl between gears when revs dropped was something else, most disappointed when the new section got bolted on.
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Our road is parallel rows of slab-fronted 1970s houses. Rellies at Christmas came in their Morris Traveller which, they assure me, is in good working order. The din it made as it left, amplified into standing waves between the house fronts, was remarkable for any machine, let alone one that travels so slowly. Fishtail exhaust on that, I think.
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It is always good to keep a coathanger in the boot for just such an exhaust support problem ....
www.humordevil.com/trust-me-im-an-engineer/
......along with the mandatory WD 40 for such items that are meant to move and do not and the duct tape for the items that do move and are not meant to......
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£278 inc VAT. Ouch. £230 of that was for the part! Apparently the exchange rate on jap sourced parts is nuts atm - I did read somewhere that the japs are looking to try and devalue the Yen soon.
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Might have been just as dear to have had a stainless steel one made up. Still you wont be keeping the car long enough to benefit from one.
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First car failure of the year! - Lygonos
