Basic tools

Exhaust fitting is a horrible job. Pay someone else to do it unless you really can't afford not to.

Mackays would be the obvious starting point, Halfords are good for jacks & stands when they've got a special offer on. You don't need a torque wrench to fit an exhaust.

Seconded.

I used to do servicing and some repairs for work colleagues at the weekends. If I was asked to do an exhaust I would tell them that I would do it, but that I would only take it to a fast fit place, and charge them for the privilege. No one took me up on the offer!

Apart from the difficulty of removal of an old exhaust, it's one of the most hazardous DIY jobs to do. You need to have your whole body under the car whilst wrestling with the stubborn bits of exhaust.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the eBay parts are cheap for a reason. They may not last long, and you will have no guarantee. That might not be a problem for you. More importantly, cheap exhaust parts often don't fit very well, and may need heating up to adjust a bend here or there. That's certainly not for a novice DIYer!

Chris

Thirded. I tried exhaust fitting once. It's hard, dirty work to do at home.

Removing and replacing exhausts on old cars when you can't get them up on a hoist and work under them comfortably is about the biggest pain in the arse in car maintenance you'll ever encounter. It's bad enough when the car is on a hoist, you have decent tools and also know what you're doing. Half the bolts and studs will be rusted solid, especially at the manifold end. Chances are, especially as you won't have good tool technique, they'll break or round off leaving you to drill them out and replace them or even need to buy other sections of exhaust you thought were ok. Getting the exhaust sections apart when they're rusted together can be nigh on impossible if you don't have room to get a good swing at them with a hammer. When you do get the new one on it'll leak at every joint and bang against the car body somewhere. You'll find you need new clamps and rubber mounts that you hadn't bought in advance and you now have a stuck car so you'll need another one to drive somewhere and get them.

By all means give it a go and then come back and tell us if the cost saving was worth it. During the upgrade of the exhaust manifold to a performance item on my Focus, which was only 4 years old at the time, a downpipe stud snapped clean off leaving the car stranded on the ramp with either the new or old system unable to be fitted back until we'd drilled the whole stud out and replaced it with a nut and bolt. That took half an hour, an angle grinder and two broken drill bits and was only possible anyway because the mate doing it for me is an expert mechanic and has all the right tools to hand. If it's that bad on a new car you can extrapolate to what it's like on one 5 times as old.

Good luck. You'll need it.

It really is about the worst job to start off your DIY activities. I'm pretty experienced DIY wise and have more tools than you can shake a stick at but leave exhausts to the pros. They're simply too much hassle without easy access to the underneath of the car - and often even with.

Agreed. You really need air driven rattle guns and a lift to do the job, IME.

I did fit an exhaust to my Cinq. and my Golf, I'd never do it again.

However, doing the back box on the 75 was easy with a pair of ramps and a socket set. I wouldn't have done the middle pipe, though.

I fitted the Rimmer's SS exhaust to the SD1 - a complete system can make things easier. But sheared two studs on the manifolds so they had to come off to be fixed. It's now got brass nuts everywhere it can have so should come off if needed - but being SS I hope it never will.

Had no problem doing my Bravo on the drive, just got some ramps and reversed it up them, car was high enough off the ground to work comfortably underneath and wasn't going to go anywhere! I'd be very wary of doing it on axle stands or similar though, specially 2 save a few quid :(

Hellraiser............>

OK, I think I'm suitably put off :) But having a decent jack and sockets are useful to have anyway, so any recommendations?

Theo

"Doki" wrote in news:45e063d2$0$2449$db0fefd9 @news.zen.co.uk:

I tried it once on a Maestro, picked up a half price full system to fit. Took me ages in the dark,on the drive. Needed to do it as exhaust had fallen off and wife was in hospital with first kid. The next day I drove past a Quick fit place who advertised the same job all in for the same as I'd paid for my system. Never again.

I'll probably be fitting a new system on a Spridget in the next week or so, and at some point will have to fit one to my resto project. Recently I had to drop the front pipe on my Rover to do some engine work (one awkward nut on the manifold, appears it was threaded by whatever expert Crap Fit place last touched the car). Have replaced Metro and Mini systems as well as parts of most of the other cars I've owned, had very few problems. Even sheared studs have been either sorted by me, or for beer money at a friendly garage.

I have stands, a decent pair of ramps, a cheapo trolley jack and a random assortment of s/h spanners, sockets etc.

I've paid to have the exhausts done twice so far - One was a Cav and I had to spend the following weekend redoing i as the garage had made a complete hash and it started leaking within 50 miles, the other was a Mini where the garage failed to fit the pump to carb pipe properly, and it ended up pissing fuel everywhere a couple of days later.

I think I'll stick to doing it myself.

Halfords usually have a 'package' deal on their trolley jack and axle stands. It's what I bought a good few years back.

Also, last Christmas I was given a Halfords Pro socket set - lovely kit, bargain price - it's not Snap-on, but not far off and a fraction of the price.

Chris Bartram wrote in news:vVZDh.6691$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

Depends on the vehicle. Most road cars are quite low to the ground and the bolts corrode from all the road dirt until they're solid.

OTOH, doing the exhaust on my father-in-law's Rascal van was a doddle! It all came apart easily and it wasn't even necessary to raise the vehicle.

Last time I had an exhaust done I sourced it myself from Eurocarparts and a local tyre & exhaust fitter fitted it for me for £25.

Stu

It's said you also get fretting corrosion on exhausts because of the vibration.

"Fretting corrosion,(also known as wear corrosion or friction oxidation) can occur at the interface of two highly-loaded surfaces which are not supposed to move against each other. However, vibration may cause the surfaces to rub together resulting in an abrasive wear known as fretting. The protective film on the metallic surfaces is removed by this rubbing action. With continued rubbing, metal particles sheared from the surface of the metal combine with oxygen to form metal oxide. As these oxides accumulate, they cause damage by abrasive action and increased local stress."

A lot depends on the type of joints between the sections, and how much you have to replace. On many cars, the sections slide inside the next, and these are almost impossible to release later once the rust and other crud has taken hold. You often need an oxy-acetyline torch to get them apart. On the other hand, those like my Peugeot have V type joints which have a v section clamp round them, and these, in my experience, come apart very easily. You might need a bit of WD40 on the bolts for an hour or so before trying to shift them. Worst bit, as has been said, is getting to it under the car. NEVER just rely on a jack, too many people have been killed doing just that, and it's not worth risking your life for a few quid. A set of ramps are the most sensible. However, I would first of all shop around for prices, don't just go to the first place you see. However, beware Quickfit, as they will attack your car with a mallet in order to try to show that something else needs replacing too (in my experience). As far as tools are concerned, how long is a bit of string? I have been doing DIY vehicle repairs for years now, and have a very comprehensive tool kit, but still find I don't have a socket to fit that particular awkward nut.

Dave Baker formulated the question :

I must say I have never had that much difficulty with one and have done all of mine for the past 30+ years. The only one I cursed at was one which had a back axle and the only way to get the exhaust swapped was to drop the entire axle down - that took most of the day to change.

I will confess I did once break a manifold to exhaust stud... It would have been easy to drill out and replace, but as a temporary bodge I held it together with a self grip wrench intending to tackle it later. I sold it with that wrench still in place, several years later.

A good hot air gun frees off most bolts and a bit of Plus Gas makes them easy to remove.

There are some - usually metric sizes - that aren't supplied in a normal socket set or some spanner sets. The trick is to buy one when you come across such a size. There aren't that many - apart obviously large ones.

That's an excellent article. Thanks, Ben C.