Here's a bit of a positive note for a change.
I've been buying new cars on and off since about 1984. Lately, I've been pleasantly surprised by the longevity of the original exhaust sytem. The system on our 5 year old Jazz is still looking as good as new and the system on my 3 year old Panda is still fine. Not as impressed by the silencer on my daughter's Panda 1,1 active which, after 2 years and 27,000 miles is corroding along one of its seams.
However, past experience has been of silencers failing on new cars on a regular basis after 2-3 years. Never any point in treating it as a warranty claim, the best they ever offered was to go halves but as they charged twice as much as the fast fit places there was no point.
Are the exhaust sytems tougher? Are cleaner exhaust gases exposing the exhaust sytem to less corrosive gases? Or am I just imaging it all?
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One major factor in exhaust system longevity is average trip length. If the car gets lots of short trips, its exhaust will fall apart quickly for want of warming up properly. Exhausts on cars that enjoy mainly long-trip use last for ages. Does this figure at all in your experiences?
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Strangely, my daughter's Panda 1.1 Active which almost exclusively does trips of at least 15 miles and usually much longer is the one with the dodgy looking silencer.
The balance between long and short journeys on the other cars is no different from that of years gone by.
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Diesel exhausts last longer due to the composition of the exhaust gases (more CO2 and less H2O).
Stainless steel ones are expensive, but I wonder why steel ones aren't plated (zinc or copper maybe)?
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But Diesels are well known for their low CO2 - could it be the generous layer of soot and higher gas flow due to burning with an excess or sir?
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Are diesel exhausts made of tougher or thicker stuff than the petrols, i wonder if they might be as the diesels obviously have more vibration.
There are some extremely popular at the moment very small cars that i deliver whose exhausts are as rusty as a horseshoe before even getting to the dealers, these are exceptional though, and i have noticed many, mainly Korean and the like cars exhausts seem very shiny and i would have said coated with some sort of rust inhibiting finish.
I wonder if kia and hundai cover their exhausts as part of their warranty.
I always check with the main dealer before getting an aftermarket exhaust, merc ones are probably only 10% dearer than a pattern part, and should last 10 to 12 years.
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Had 15 years of diesels now and the only bit of exhaust I've fitted in that time was the rear box of a 66k Astra - think its more to do with the reduction of water in the exhaust when compared with petrol - follow a "cold" petrol and its dripping out of the back - can't do it any good!
Edited by b308 on 03/06/2008 at 19:42
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Fitted a rear box & pipe to the 944 last year for the MOT. The original would have probably passed but I had a stainless performance system so fitted that.
I suspect the system was the original so 21 years old & 130K+
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Are the exhaust sytems tougher?
Probably. It's a shame they're not made of stainless steel, though.
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I do not think diesel exhausts are tougher... but the conditions petrol engines work under make their exhausts far more corrosive:
Water in exhaust
MUCH higher exhaust gas temperatures...
Much faster warm up: so more thermal stresses...
MUCH hotter catalysts.. glowing red after hillwork?
Back box on SWMBO's diesel 106 is original at 15 years old... and looks 3 :-) Petrol back boxes on 106s rust at the seams and split...
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The back box went on our 1996 A4 after 7 years. It was the welded bracket that failed so I had the box changed before it fell off. The Audi original replacement lasted another 5 before the tail pipe fell off ( another bad weld) Each box was otherwise OK. There was only rust in the seams, I am sure the rest of the system was stainless steel.
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The major factor is the move to unleaded petrol. Leaded contained some pretty unpleasant chemicals which contributed to corrosion.
JS
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I was surprised recently when the FIL's 2004 Golf 1.4 (one of the last Mk IVs) required the rear exhaust section replacing. It's done about 30k and is looked after better than any other car I know of.
We wondered if the car being parked nose-down on a sloping driveway most nights meant that water vapour ran back into the system when it cooled and condensed. Even if this did explain it, he never had any problems with previous cars.
The exhaust on my 2003 1.2 Polo still seems fine by comparison.
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Just replaced the original exhaust on SWMBOs Honda CRV - 1999 model, 98,000 miles. Her typical drive is 15 miles each way.
Mates Astra - new exhaust at 34,000 miles and 4 years old - similar kind of trips
Dad's Golf - W reg, 30,000 miles - exhaust is like new (mind you, so is the rest of his car!)
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