citroen picasso exhaust problem

lindos90

Hi, Im not sure if this should be here, or the consumer section, hope someone can help.

My husband has had the exhaust replaced on his car. Straight away we noticed it sounded like it was 'blowing' and could feel warm air escaping from around a joint.

We returned to the garage, but they said that the exhaust has a built in 'blowhole' at the joint, and it should stop sounding so noisey when it begins to get a carbon buildup inside the 'box'.

Not knowing about exhausts, I dont know if this is true or not, but sounded fishy.

We have since noticed that the exaust catches on the ground (if we are going up ramps in car parks/uneven ground) So I suspected that it had probably had not been fitted properly, or the garage has used the wrong exaust.

My husband thinks im stupid, and won't let it go, as ive had a look under a few picasso's when I went shopping today, to see if there is a difference, which there seems to be.

In other picasso's the exhaust fits snuggly to the contour of the underside of the car, but in ours the back 'box' looks to be in a different place, and possibly larger, and the pipe is not near the body of the car.

The end of the exhaust pipe does not even stick out of the back of the car in the right place!

Can anyone suggest what to do? As we have been back to the garage already, and been 'fobbed off' I dont have much faith in them, but dont know what else to do.

Has anyone else had this problem with a picasso? (im wondering if there is a mixup with the part code in the manufacturers catalogue or something?)

I'm wondering if a citreon dealer would have a quick look at it, but why would they be interested? as we didnt get the exhaust from them.

Sorry for long post, thanks for reading it!

goldspanners

im guessing it was a pattern exhaust and not a genuine citroen part?

there will be a difference, usually its not much of a difference,but it might be in your case a big difference, when a new exhaust has been fitted it can make a big difference to how an engine sounds,i remember a van my last company had was just a naturally aspirated diesel and when it got a new exhaust it sounded as if it had a turbo fitted to it.
but as you are saying you have actually felt around a join in the exhaust and feel air being pushed out it then i would guess its leaking, ( please dont do this when its been running for a length of time )
is it petrol or diesel? if its diesel then you should possibly see black soot around the area its leaking at.

anewman

There should be no leak at the joint. It should be joined usually by means of a clamp and some paste which creates a gas tight seal. In the current condition I believe it would fail an MOT.

Non-genuine exhausts often don't fit quite the same and need different exhaust hangers to the genuine ones. But hitting the ground is not acceptable. It sounds to me like they've just fitted a generic back-box (or one they had laying around) and didn't bother ordering one designed for your car.

I'm not quite sure what you can get done in terms of getting the garage to sort it out. Hopefully there's trading standards or someone will point out what you need to do. In fact I recently went had some welding done on my car for a tailgate strut which has now failed as the metal used was too thin and had bent. I was planning to just go elsewhere and never use that garage again.

lindos90

goldspanners wrote: »

im guessing it was a pattern exhaust and not a genuine citroen part?

there will be a difference, usually its not much of a difference,but it might be in your case a big difference, when a new exhaust has been fitted it can make a big difference to how an engine sounds,i remember a van my last company had was just a naturally aspirated diesel and when it got a new exhaust it sounded as if it had a turbo fitted to it.
but as you are saying you have actually felt around a join in the exhaust and feel air being pushed out it then i would guess its leaking, ( please dont do this when its been running for a length of time )
is it petrol or diesel? if its diesel then you should possibly see black soot around the area its leaking at.

Thanks for your reply, its a petrol engine, and im guessing its a non-genuine part as it was not from a dealer (is that a pattern part?), but I would have thouht it should fit much better than it does.

Strange thing is, about the 'leak' at the joint, the garage said it was supposed to be there, as part of the design. Ive googled 'exhaust blow hole' and all I get are sites about zooped up stainless steel exhausts for sporty types!