Help, my car exhaust is black and crumbling?!

RainbowLaura

Hi everyone,

I noticed with horror just now that my car exhaust looks like this!!



The car is 15 years old so is this relatively "normal" wear and tear, or is there a serious problem? It's booked in for service and MOT in just over a week - can it wait until then?

Thanks for any advice...

Laura

worried_jim

It can wait. Don't panic.

DUTR

As above or put one of those wanna be chrome/stainless steel exhaust covers on there.

rich13348

It's just wear and tear just get them to check for leaks when it is serviced. If it leaks along the length of the pipe that is an MoT failure.

forgotmyname

Unless its one of the rare ones that causes major problems when they go then get it sorted when you can.

A bad one I remember is the old Ford Escort, when the front pipe rust through it could drop and dig into the road as you drove along.
If that happened at speed it could flip the car.

The rear exhaust is usually the one that goes first, It doesnt get as hot as the front so more moisture remains and more water/muck gets chucked to is also.

A few cars have boxes that fall off and like to take the bumper with it.

The picture looks like the tail pipe is in the line of fire from spray from the road wheels. The rest doesn't look too bad.

The front of the rear exhaust box needs to be checked.

RainbowLaura

Thanks all, your reassurance is very much appreciated. I shall hand it over to the garage when it's service/MOT time and let them take it from there The mechanic I use is very good and tends to fix any potential failures before doing the MOT at the end, so fingers crossed he will get it through for me.

Stoke

If you still have this, you could easily fix this yourself by either putting a trim over... or cutting out the old nasty part and adding a fresh piece in.

No welding or effort required.