Kwik Fit exhaust change

foofi22

Hi

My exhaust sounds as if it is on the brink of falling off, for the third time!

Due to circumstances I may have to take the car (Peugeot 106) to Kwik Fit this weekend because they will be open when I am free. Also I think they are more likely to have the parts in stock (I'll check before hand)

I know KF have a bad rep on here (and elsewhere I imagine) but surely they must be alright for changing an exhaust?! Has anyone any experience of them doing this? Are their costs reasonable?

It appears the exhaust pipe corrodes near the input to the silencer. Over time a hole develops and it gets quite loud, eventually the hole becomes to big and the pipe just falls off - anyone have any ideas on why this has happened two (soon to be three) times?

Keith

If you can identify what bit needs changing then I guess they may be fine, but I'd try the other local places first.

There is a reason other garages need you to book in whilst you can normally drive into KF.

vaio

foofi22 wrote: »

Hi

My exhaust sounds as if it is on the brink of falling off, for the third time!

Due to circumstances I may have to take the car (Peugeot 106) to Kwik Fit this weekend because they will be open when I am free. Also I think they are more likely to have the parts in stock (I'll check before hand)

I know KF have a bad rep on here (and elsewhere I imagine) but surely they must be alright for changing an exhaust?! Has anyone any experience of them doing this? Are their costs reasonable?

It appears the exhaust pipe corrodes near the input to the silencer. Over time a hole develops and it gets quite loud, eventually the hole becomes to big and the pipe just falls off - anyone have any ideas on why this has happened two (soon to be three) times?

Engines produce lots of water (1 gallon per gallon of petrol used rings a bell), this comes out through the exhaust as steam, the back box is the coolest bit, particularly if you do short journeys and the steam condenses out and rots the box, normally on a welded joint or stress point.

The solution is to buy better quality exhausts, painted thin mild steel costs £x and comes with a year guarantee, aluminumised thicker mild steel costs £1.5x and comes with three year guarantee, stainless costs £4x and lasts for ever.

Original equipment ones tend to be good quality so might be worth looking into, my Audi (’99 and 200k miles) is still on the original one with no signs of giving up any time soon.

Strider590

You can go to KF if you like, just watch them like a hawk and don't listen if they tell you anything else needs doing.... They can get quite aggressive if you don't believe them, so smile.

The exhaust is probably falling off because you do a lot of very short journey's that don't give the car enough time to warm up and heat the exhaust enough to remove water vapour.
Short journeys are extremely bad for your car, for any car in fact.
It's the single biggest factor in exhaust corrosion/failure.

colino

If it is very noisy, it could be the front flexi pipe that has broken. While this will need replaced (and some places can weld in just the braided flexi pipe) they normally break due to engine mount problems - the rocking motion of the engine is too severe for the flexi pipe. They will need checked/replaced or your new exhaust will go the same way. If however it really is your back box that has rotted out due to condensation collecting there, there is nothing to stop you drilling a small hole at its lowest part to let the condensed steam out. Noise/pollution isn't going to be a big hazard there.

andy208833

Personally have never had a problem with KF although i do find they are not the cheapest around but for convienience i sometimes use them.

foofi22

Thanks for the replies.

I don't drive short distances (well very rarely) I'll just about always do 2x ~2hour drives at the weekend. The noise comes on very suddenly - last weekend I set of from the Midlands and there was no noise, by the time I arrived on the south coast the noise was very audible.

On both occasions prior to this one, it snapped where the pipe is joined to the silencer, resulting in the pipe dragging along the floor. So both times it has been in approximately the same location. Also I have had the cat replaced because of corrosion, I don't know a huge amount about this, but I suspected that the fuel is not getting completely burnt and ends up burning further down the chain - then I could be completely wrong!

I'll try KF and see how much they want to charge - I dig out the records from last time to check.

cyclonebri1

vaio wrote: »

Engines produce lots of water (1 gallon per gallon of petrol used rings a bell), this comes out through the exhaust as steam, the back box is the coolest bit, particularly if you do short journeys and the steam condenses out and rots the box, normally on a welded joint or stress point.

The solution is to buy better quality exhausts, painted thin mild steel costs £x and comes with a year guarantee, aluminumised thicker mild steel costs £1.5x and comes with three year guarantee, stainless costs £4x and lasts for ever.

Original equipment ones tend to be good quality so might be worth looking into, my Audi (’99 and 200k miles) is still on the original one with no signs of giving up any time soon.

It's not quite that bad, but yes, an awefull lot of water. Most will be burnt off as steam if used for normal runs, hence no issue.

I fitted a stainless exhaust system to my 1 year old vectra, (stop laughing), still see the present owner on a daily basis. 12 years later, all is still well, :T:T:T:T:T

Strider590

foofi22 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I don't drive short distances (well very rarely) I'll just about always do 2x ~2hour drives at the weekend. The noise comes on very suddenly - last weekend I set of from the Midlands and there was no noise, by the time I arrived on the south coast the noise was very audible.

On both occasions prior to this one, it snapped where the pipe is joined to the silencer, resulting in the pipe dragging along the floor. So both times it has been in approximately the same location. Also I have had the cat replaced because of corrosion, I don't know a huge amount about this, but I suspected that the fuel is not getting completely burnt and ends up burning further down the chain - then I could be completely wrong!

I'll try KF and see how much they want to charge - I dig out the records from last time to check.

Yes but what mileage do you do in between?
Take a 6 inch nail and drop it in a glass of salt water, come back in 2 days and tell me what it looks like

Im wondering if there's a problem with your exhaust mounts now too.

vaio

Strider590 wrote: »

Yes but what mileage do you do in between?
Take a 6 inch nail and drop it in a glass of salt water, come back in 2 days and tell me what it looks like

Im wondering if there's a problem with your exhaust mounts now too.

same thought just occurred to me as the OP doesn't do short trips. Excessive loads caused by weak, missing or misaligned mounts could be causing it to flex/crack & fail

jd82

My dad took his old Fiesta to KF to get a new back box. Cost about £60 all in and they didn't start saying other things need doing. Three years later the same box is still going strong.