Aftermarket exhaust no good - legal advice needed please

marko2002

Hi all, well after now forking out a mint for this that and the other thing on my car I'm at my wits end as to where I stand legally - here's the story.
In Feb this year I bought a car with my redundancy money (car was bought for £3,000). The first weekend I had the car, I noticed a chip in the windscreen and white smoke from the exhaust. 1 AA patrol-man later and I needed a new windscreen and a cylinder head gasket. As the same time he advised me I had a leak in my exhaust. I returned to the dealer and they (aparently) fixed the exhaust and the cylinder head after a week.

I claimed my insurance for a new windscreen and I thought well that's my 3 bad lucks so I was confident nothing else was going to go wrong.

A few weeks down the line and I went over a speed bump and crunch, front end of my exhaust copped it. Unfortunately, the part I hit just happened to be my CAT which is the most expensive bit. £400 later and I had an aftermarket cat fitted by Budget as to get a genuine Vauxhall part was costing me over £800. I was never happy with the part they fitted and protested that the car didn't sound the same. They explained that because it wasn't a genuine part it wouldn't and this was merely a characteristic of aftermarket exhausts. I put up a fight but they insisted that this was the way the exhaust sounded, so sorry.

Having to swallow this, I then started about asking around on some Vauxhall forums and to my horror I discovered that the genuine part actually had 2 cats and the one they fitted to my car only had 1. When I returned to Budget and challenged them they said it was perfectly acceptable to only have 1 cat as they had fitted a number of these to cars without any problem. Asking if this could be the reason why it didn't sound the same they explained it was possible, but again it's down to the aftermarket exhaust!.

Not happy, I had no choice but to accept what they were telling me and was now driving a car which sounded worse than it did before. To add insult to injury, a few months later (only last week) I started the car and boom! - now the car really was sounding terrible, as if something major in the exhaust had went. I returned to Budget and asked them to take a look and guess what?. The entire backend of the exhaust was now shot to pieces!!. Another quote of £280 and I was out of there like a shot. I phoned Kwik-Fit who I'm insured with and got a cheaper quote (10% discount and all that). Now although my opinion of the fast fit centres is basically mud, I now have little choice as I am still unemployed and need the car for my disabled wife, chances are this will become her permanant disability car as I am having to care for her more and more and likely wont be able to return to work. So cash if very limited and after all, what else can possibly go wrong?.

A few hundred quid later, and the car is again sounding worse than ever. Returned to KF complaining and they made a couple of adjustments and admittedly the car does sound better but nothing like it originally did.

Now the problem is I have no idea which part of the exhaust is sounding worse, the front cat section from Budget or the rear end from Kwik Fit!.

I'm convinced that the car does not sound anything like it used to, and while I can accept there may be a different characteristic from an aftermarket exhaust I cannot accept that the "rasping" coming from the whole system is normal. I'm in desperate need of advice here in regards to my legal stance. Would it, for example, be possible for me to get the opinion of say a Vauxhall garage, particularly in regards to the x2 cat issue, and return to Budget demanding a similar exhaust now after months have passed since Feb? or am I snookered?

Thanks in advance all
Mark

jeannieblue

Think you get what you pay for - sorry if that is not what you want to hear.

harveybobbles

Kwik sh i t are well know for doing stuff like this.

Why didn't you go back to the dealer and let them sort everything out...?

So many customers come back to me saying they have been to KF type places and want some money back. so we say no, you should have come back to us to sort it out FOC...

marko2002

Genie,
Sorry I'm not a mechanic, I am a computer engineer.
The same applies if I replace your faulty hard drive for half the price, yet tell you the original is overpriced and there's no difference between the two - I'm the expert so you'd be inclined to believe me right? If you then think the hard drive is noisy and I tell you that it's because it's not an original hard drive would you think that was fair of me?

Harvey, the problems with the exhaust and so forth was after my months warranty so I assumed I had no further recourse with them. In all honesty, yes I know what you're thinking, another mug bought a pig in a poke, and I would have to agree with you. But the problem is, everyone has their trade and like I explained above unless we know about the matter in hand we have to take guidance from those who are apparently in the know, the only difference between me and the many (not all) in the motor industry is I have a conscience

jeannieblue

Sorry - guess I was a bit rude/abrupt.

But it is true - forget the 'car' game - I have applied the same rules, if you like to all I buy or do. I've always tried to research as much as possible whenever I have needed anything. I don't have money to throw around but I do try to be cautious too.

And you will be pleased to know that I have come a 'cropper' a couple of times too. Mainly with shoes - I know that sounds very 'girly' but - I have bought cheap shoes - and if you are on your feet all day or have alot of walking to do, you know (or get to know the hard way) that on some things you just cannot skimp.

Don't wish to be wise after the event, but you may have been better off to source a secondhand cat rather than get a pattern one. Not all pattern is bad tho...

Doesn't help you much at the mo - so i will shut up now..

marko2002

Genie, I do appreciate the point you were making but I'm just tired of constantly trying to do battle with rip off merchants - I probably could have tried sourcing a replacement but again it's at the mercy of the seller. I'm not one of those 'trust nobody' people but it's genuinely a game of truth or dare with cars and parts when we don't know what we're looking for. I think the best I can hope for is to put it down as an expensive mistake and try my hand at a small local garage who has since been highly recommended in the hope they can salvage something from the situation but if nothing else I've learned not to return to these guys ever again!.
Cheers
Mark

anewman

I would just check that emissions are well within MOT limits (if not then the catalyst is not fit for purpose which I believe has some legal recourse in some sort of law). If the noise only comes from the exhaust exit hole (assuming the rest is properly sealed) I wouldn't worry about it and would just try out-do the 1 litre corsa/saxo chav racers.

marko2002

OK, the line about the corsa/saxo chav racers seriously made me chuckle
I've actually had a brainstorm from your suggestion anewman, thing is when I took out my insurance with KF I got a free MOT voucher (presumably so they can tell you that you need a further grand's worth of work to pass) so it's off to a DIFFERENT Kwik Fit this week me think's and I will cross my fingers that it fails it's emissions as between Budget and Kwik Fit this is a brand new exhaust so wouldn't it be interesting to see if they actually point the finger at the exhaust!??

The sound of the "rasp" "noise" "gargle" (call it what you will) doesn't seem to come only from the back, it's just bleedin noisy all over!

MarkyMarkD

New exhausts are noisier than old ones, especially if they are cheaper makes. They tend to fill up with soot and so forth and get quieter as time goes by.

IMHO it's incredibly unlikely that it will fail its MOT for emissions. I would expect you to be able to get an emission test (on its own) done by someone for less than the value of an MOT, so it's a bit of a waste to use your "free MOT" voucher just for this.

marko2002

good point Mark, might try the local garage which was recommended, not sure if they have this equipment but no harm asking I guess. Thanks
Mark

MarkyMarkD

The exhaust on our Laguna was awfully noisy when first fitted. Now, years down the line, it's fine. It probably still doesn't sound like its OE exhaust, but it doesn't rasp like it used to.