Exhaust fallen off car

[robdex1]

Was just driving along and heard a loud noise and then a scraping from under the car. Had a look and the exhause pipe has come away from the front of the car and is dragging along the floor. Luckily was near a garage he came to look and said to drive it back. He drove and he didn't even drive slowly which made me slightly concerned. He had a look and showed me where it had come loose and also the joint in the middle was cracked. He said it needs a front box and middle box or something. My knowledge of cars is very limited so just had to take his word. He's told me the front part is £80 and same for back part and then a bracket £20 plus like £120 for labour. Is this the right thing he is doing? I've attached some pics

[SAS Tom]

Sounds about right to me. Why do you have reason to doubt him?

[robdex1]

I don't have any particular reason really. Just want to make sure I'm not being ripped off. I guess it can't just be repaired somehow it has to be replaced?

[Aunty Pasty]

It's rusted and falling to pieces. You need to replace it.

[Cotty]

Surprised that got though the last MOT

[robdex1]

The MOT was last August. I took it in to my local garage two weeks ago for a new drive belt. He said to me the exhaust had a tiny hole in, I think must have heard something while driving it, but it's fine for now. Should he have noticed that the pipe was all rusted and needs replacing? And second question I didn't mention to this guy about the hole does it affect anything?

[Nexus Icon]

My friend, that system is borked and that price doesn't seem at all bad for this day and age.

[robdex1]

Nexus Icon said:

My friend, that system is borked and that price doesn't seem at all bad for this day and age.

Thank you. Puts me more at ease. Now I'm wondering if my local mechanic who has 30 years experience should have commented on the state of it if he noticed a small hole in the exhaust

[Nexus Icon]

robdex1 said:

Thank you. Puts me more at ease. Now I'm wondering if my local mechanic who has 30 years experience should have commented on the state of it if he noticed a small hole in the exhaust

Mild steel exhausts can look pretty ropey quite quickly and will do for a long time before they actually rot through and let go, and that stage can happen annoyingly fast when it does. It's been 9 months or more, and it could've easily felt pretty sound back then, bar the small hole. You'd have been understandably less than happy if he'd put a new system on when you could likely get another year out of that one. It's a lottery, I'm afraid, and the only general solution to a rusty exhaust is a stainless steel or titanium system.

[robdex1]

Nexus Icon said:

Mild steel exhausts can look pretty ropey quite quickly and will do for a long time before they actually rot through and let go, and that stage can happen annoyingly fast when it does. It's been 9 months or more, and it could've easily felt pretty sound back then, bar the small hole. You'd have been understandably less than happy if he'd put a new system on when you could likely get another year out of that one. It's a lottery, I'm afraid, and the only general solution to a rusty exhaust is a stainless steel or titanium system.

I meant why didn't he notice it only two weeks ago when I took it in for a repair. He commented on a hole in the exhaust, but maybe like you say he still doesn't know how long it will last and maybe I hit a pothole recently I do alot of driving

[Aunty Pasty]

He did mention the hole. If he started poking it with a screwdriver to explore and test the metal and it got worse then he'd risk the punter blaming him for the problem.

[paintman]

About the only certainty of poking the area around a rust hole on a car is how much bigger it will suddenly get

[stevieturbo]

robdex1 said:

I meant why didn't he notice it only two weeks ago when I took it in for a repair. He commented on a hole in the exhaust, but maybe like you say he still doesn't know how long it will last and maybe I hit a pothole recently I do alot of driving

So you say he didn't notice it, but told you there was a hole in the exhaust....so he did notice it

[robdex1]

stevieturbo said:

So you say he didn't notice it, but told you there was a hole in the exhaust....so he did notice it

What I'm saying is that he sort of dismissed it as a minor problem when a few people on here have said how bad it looks from the pics

[E-bmw]

robdex1 said:

stevieturbo said:

So you say he didn't notice it, but told you there was a hole in the exhaust....so he did notice it

What I'm saying is that he sort of dismissed it as a minor problem when a few people on here have said how bad it looks from the pics

It is likely that MUCH more damage was done when the support failed, he did notice it for what it was at the time, just get on with life in the knowledge that what was noticed at the time was the issue at the time.

You appear to have an honest garage/mechanic & also stumbled across an honest place to fix the exhaust, when you read some horror stories on here you need to count yourself lucky.

[tux850]

robdex1 said:

The MOT was last August. I took it in to my local garage two weeks ago for a new drive belt. He said to me the exhaust had a tiny hole in, I think must have heard something while driving it, but it's fine for now. Should he have noticed that the pipe was all rusted and needs replacing?

Not if he was fitting a new drive belt and not working on the exhaust. He might've just heard something symptomatic of a small hole in the exhaust- whilst driving it as you say - and simply passed that info on without further investigation as it wasn't related to what you were paying him to do.