Car sounds like a boy racer!

slyracoon

You have a hole or crack in your exhaust.

Exhausts are usually in 2 or 3 sections and you can usually have the problem section replaced. Back box or any other part that dosen't have a catalytic convertor can be replaced at garage for I estimate about £100. If the problem is in the section of exhaust that has the cataluytic convertor then you are looking at around £200 or more.

s_b

OP its most likely the flexi hose has split and is quite common on a punto it may well be as cheap to have the whole exhaust from the cat replaced if it is old and you should get change out of £100
if it is the cat then these are very expensive about £200 + for a proper one,however its the flange at the end of the cat that corrodes and so there is a new flange available that bolts on once the old one is cut off ,these cost £25 plus fitting
pre-warned is forewarned:)

As regards an exhaust falling off and causing the vehicle to go up in the air like a spear this happened to my brother 20 years ago in a merc van and it did shake him up a bit,well it shook him up a lot actually:rotfl:

GlynD

Outpost wrote: »

And presumably that because she is a woman she is more likely to be confused by 'technical terms' than a man?

Just less likely to have heard them is all.:)

thefishdude

GlynD wrote: »

That may well be the case but fitting a tailpipe and box is hardly rocket science

that is true how ever the punto if it is teh previos incarnation ie mk2 or 2.5 face lift then fitting a back box is a pain in the !!! as the exhaust goes up and over the rear axel so has to be threaded in so to speak preferable taking some weight of back wheels so to low rear axel beam down. also due to this design ther is a very small tolerence in were it can be fitted to far back and rear box catches on rear axel underload eitehr from weight or take off, to far forward and tail pipe can catch on rear bumper.

also if it is the 1.2 16v the catalytic converter is located in the exhaust manifold and entire thing has to be replaced if that or the down pipe from it has gone.

RichGold

vax2002 wrote: »

If it snaps and falls on the road it could kill someone in the chaos caused behind you, get it fixed asap.

Exactly that. I was doing 70mph 2 cars back from a car this happened to on the M1 about 6 months ago. The car in front swerved in time, I only just missed it and it went under a lorry behind me.

Could easily have been fatal.

Run it into one of the major high street car fitters, most of them will price up whats wrong for free.

Lum

If you go to Kick Fit they'll try to tell you that your brakes are about to die, your tyres are bald, you need a headlight fluid change and your flux capacitor needs replacing urgently.

liam8282

Most exhausts are designed so that even in the event that they do completely break on any part of the system, they remain fixed to the car by the way of the joins or clamps.

For an exhaust to snap and come off a car completely, you would need the clamps to be broken and the exhaust to have a clean break. Which isn't very likely. I am not saying exhausts do not fall off, I am just saying it doesn't happen very often, and it must take some time to get to that point. An exhaust doesn't just fall off.

I agree it should be taken to a garage to be looked at asap, but all this doom and gloom about people being killed (or near misses), by flying exhausts is all a bit melodramatic.

If it is the case about these flying exhausts, they should also pay for an MOT and four new tyres while they are getting the exhaust fixed, just in case.

danielley

Thank you for all your replies.

I called ATS yesterday (the place where I got it replaced 4yrs ago) and they said if its just the back box, it will be £69.48 all in with a 3 yr guarantee, sounds reasonable enough to me. Just hope they dont diagnose any other stuff when I get there!

Apologies to those people who think I was being irresponsible leaving it as it was; Now I know about the emissions and also the chance of the exhaust falling off, I will get it sorted, I just like checking all of your expertise on here, before I take it to a garage, because I am pretty clueless with cars and YES I would have been confused at the CAT reference before

liam8282

I would ring round a few more places first, as that seems a little bit steep to me.

There is a 20% discount voucher to print off on the ATS website though, so that should make it a bit better! £55.58

http://www.atseuromaster.co.uk/tyre-service-special-offers.htm

GlynD

danielley wrote: »

Thank you for all your replies.

I called ATS yesterday (the place where I got it replaced 4yrs ago) and they said if its just the back box, it will be £69.48 all in with a 3 yr guarantee, sounds reasonable enough to me. Just hope they dont diagnose any other stuff when I get there!

Apologies to those people who think I was being irresponsible leaving it as it was; Now I know about the emissions and also the chance of the exhaust falling off, I will get it sorted, I just like checking all of your expertise on here, before I take it to a garage, because I am pretty clueless with cars and YES I would have been confused at the CAT reference before

I can only wonder at the thoughts running through your head when someone suggested you might need a new cat :rotfl: