Our blinking exhaust broke last Friday while we were going north on the A1 to collect the grandchildren from school for a weekend break.
The centre pipe had fractured just a bit in front of the back box, thus allowing said back box to rest unhappily on the highway with the broken pipe as the leading part.
Cue noise and probably sparks!
I found an exit fairly soon, luckily, pulled off and managed to extract the box's rear facing lugs from the rubber bushes (all that was holding it on) and proceeded on our way relieved that the possibility of the offending part flying off at speed into someone's vehicle was sorted.
Surprisingly the noise level both inside and outside the car was perfectly acceptable, so the centre box does a good silencing job on its own.
So with good weather we were able to finish our trip with lots of ventilation - the same up and back trip being repeated on Sunday, to return the sprogs to school.
On the Saturday I priced up a genuine Honda exhaust from rear of cat to the back of the car: a mere £450. :-O
So pootling round town, I discounted Kwik Fit as I could not get onto their forecourt to park up and found a newish outfit in the town centre: Drexel Tyres - a smallish local company with 12 outlets in Lincs, Sth. Yorks and Nth. Notts. They quoted me £150, with a two year guarantee :-)
I had the job done today and what a pig it turned out to be for them, all rusted solidly, needing burning and grinding. Took two hours. They stuck to their quote though, fair play to them.
Now for sure, the genuine Honda exhaust will last longer, but do the maths on a 2002 car!
Last edited by: Roger. on Mon 5 Oct 15 at 17:12
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How long are exhausts supposed to last?
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The wisdom used to be that petrol ones rotted through in a few years but diesel soldiered on, owing to the less acidic nature of the exhaust and the protective qualities of soot!
All I know is that I haven't needed a new one since the exhaust holed on a 2 year old petrol Orion in 1989. The exhaust on the 2002 petrol Civic we bought in 2002 is still good, same with the 2005 Panda.
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The last exhaust was on a petrol engine and it lasted 11 years, I thought was fairly good.
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I think around 2001 Honda started making exhausts out of decent material - maybe due to changes in US emissions legislation.
Pretty sure there is an 8 year warranty on exhausts now.
My W-reg Civic would need a new back box every 2 years, rotting at the front end of the backbox - cost £100-£150 fitted at main dealer.
2005 CRV (sold at 5 years old) and 2009 FRV (still own at 6 years old) showing no significant corrosion on the exhausts.
** EDIT ** - 5yr on exhaust corrosion
www.honda.co.uk/cars/owners/warranty.html
Last edited by: Lygonos on Mon 5 Oct 15 at 19:43
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My X-reg Civic Estate would need a new back box in under 2 years, rotting at the front end of the backbox - cost me nothing at 15/16 mths, & again at 35 months - when they fitted the last one under warranty had UNIPART logo on it!! (Rover tie up???). I got 3 yrs out of it.
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I've no reason to think that the 06 petrol Note has ever had an exhaust. It came straight off Motability and it's just passed a new ticket with no comments.
The 52 diesel Vitara never seems to get any comments other than the broken front o/s spring which my man with the clipboard advises every year. It wouldn't be a pricey or hard job but it handles ok so I can't be arrased.
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I bought my car when it was 4yo. Now 11yo and not had to replace it. As a matter of interest, do they last longer if they are driven more than a car doing a very low stop/ start mileage?
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I would think so. If the exhaust doesn't get hot then the acidic water that condenses in there when it's cold won't be evaporated away.
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Would be interesting to see how the business model of the exhaust specialist has changed - or whether it's even possible to make a living that way any more. My impression - anecdotally from my own experience is that a modern car, well maintained and not routinely used for short journeys, may never need a new exhaust.
On the other hand, we now have more mobile oldies trundling to Asda with pipes that never warm through, mummies doing much the same in their Qashqais, and and a subculture of Garys who want their Clios and old BMWs as flatulent as possible, so perhaps there's still exhaust business there.
But I suspect most are kept going because they also do tyres and brakes, both of which are bigger and more expensive than ever, and will always wear out.
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I think WdB probably has a point. Exhausts and tuning work as a specialism because of the youngster/enthusiast market. But then casting my mind back I can't remember many places that only did exhausts. Kwik Ft, Midas, ATS/Euromaster etc were all doing tyres and brakes as well by the eighties.
Sounds like Roger's Jazz has same weak spot as my 'lingo, the Xantia and both BXs before - the intermediate pipework. Usually it separates just upstream of the rear box under the combined effect of corrosion (from outside) and flexing.
On none of them, SFAIR, has the box 'blown' in the way it once did on my Pug 104, and even if it's had the odd pinhole it still muffled effectively.
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>> My
>> impression - anecdotally from my own experience is that a modern car, well maintained and
>> not routinely used for short journeys, may never need a new exhaust.
That's my experience:
16 year old S Type, bought at 2.75 years old with 12k on the clock... never touched the exhaust, car now showing 82k.
Likewise with 10 year old X Type diesel. Bought as a demonstrator with 3k on clock, now got 94k.
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My 2010 Panda's rear box is starting to rot, but it is not blowing yet and will probably be a whole before it does. I do lots of stop start journeys so often it doesn't get hot enough for the condensation to evaporate which rots the box from the inside out.
It must be a known issue on the Panda as FIAT have now modified the design for the Panda and it includes a drainage system to let this vapour escape. No idea how it works.
Will get the back box sorted once it does start to leak but for now getting the rear shocks fitted is the main problem I have to sort.
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I am tring to think of the last time I heard a car driving around with a blowing exhaust and I can't, yet 30 or so years ago it was a common occurance !
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>> 30 or so years ago it was a common occurance !
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Don't think I've heard much (if any) talk of Gum Gum in recent decades.
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>>Don't think I've heard much (if any) talk of Gum Gum in recent decades.
Gun Gum.
;-)
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Catalytic converter = no nitric acid in the exhaust.
Ultralow sulphur fuels = no sulphuric acid in the exhaust.
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>> >>Don't think I've heard much (if any) talk of Gum Gum in recent decades.
>>
>> Gun Gum.
>>
>> ;-)
'Twas a long time ago, like...
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Tue 6 Oct 15 at 15:17
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>>Still sold by a well known spares store:
£2-94 inc. pp on eBay
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I understand Subaru Forester exhausts are Ok but the bits that join the pipes together are mild steel and collapse in 5-6 years.
Our Yaris d4d is 13 years old : its original exhaust is perfect because I derust and repaint every 3-4 years... (sad old git)
Lots of elderly Clios with blowing exhausts round here: at least two...but they are French so not real cars :-)
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I now see I forgot to close my own parenthesis with '...and what I've read here -'
Anyway, this reminds me of one the strangest unintentional 'how not to' tales, read on another forum. It concerned an ageing relative who, every three years, would buy a three-year-old Golf. He would then 'refresh' it by taking it to a fast-fittery and having the exhaust and brakes replaced with whatever they had to offer. Presumably a habit learned in the 1960s when nothing lasted, but bizarre today. Must have made him the branch manager's best friend, though.
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That was a good life for an exhaust on a 2002 car!
The back box on my Mk 2 Jazz fell off at 6 3/4 years.
It had gone between the weld into the back box and the pipe joining to the mid pipe.
? dissimilar metal corrosion.
My indie fitted a cheap generic box for about £30 and was able to save the mid pipe.
At 7 years the battery failed and I was stranded while listening to the radio while waiting to drop a friend for a coach to London.
After a jump start by the recovery agent I charged it overnight and took it up to Coventry for the arranged trade-in next day, for another Jazz.
The bulbs I bought as spares were a complete waste of money-it never needed one.
Tyres and servicing otherwise.
Fit the jazz owner stereotype-70, but also run a Smart Roadster-my old age crisis car.
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My Saab 9-5 petrol has the original exhaust at 230,000 and 12 years old. The rear box has lost its outer skin, and I had to have a small repair to the weld where the pipe exits the centre box just 3 weeks ago. The flexi section was replaced last December but essentially it's lasted well.
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>>and 12 years old.
My current low mileage Japanese barge is 13 years old, and the original exhaust still looks as good as new. A previous car (a Maxi) which I ran for 14 years, required a visit to the local exhaust centre rather frequently.
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Honda Jazz/Fit - Exhausting tale! - Westpig
