Why oh why

Do car manufacturer's who fit stainless steel exhaust pipes as standard use
non-stainless steel bolts and flanges to join the bits together. The heat
shield above my exhaust pipe has come loose and one of the two fixing bolts
has come away and disappeared. The main dealer reckons that the bolt hole
is inaccessible so they'll have to remove the rear (silencer) and central
exhaust pipe sections to put a new bolt in. They are doubtful whether they
will be able to refit them since the bolts and flanges connecting them are
so corroded that they'll have to cut through them to remove them. That will
entail them fitting new silencer and central sections. Total cost £420.
The local garage in the village reckon they can do it without having to fit
new exhaust pipe sections. So guess who'll get the job. I thought
stainless exhaust systems were guaranteed for 10 years. Bet the bolts and
flanges aren't though. :(

Jenson Button...

Sorry to hear of your problems FN. Don't seem to get those sort of problems
with my car (it's a Honda).

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Ah but is it 9½ years old? And will it last for 24000 miles without a
service.

Jensom Button...

Mine lasted a couple of hundred miles yesterday - quite enough for me :-)

Did you see me on the podium ? :-)))

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

So long as it wasn't the old German Cobbler I was happy. :)

And I gather that your tyres need replacing after a couple of hundred miles,
and the cost of one of those is many times greater than the cost of my

Rabbit...

Cost is relastive ;-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

*relastive* ? :)

Rabbit...

Relative to the *pulling power* of the car. Mind you I'd guess you had given
that up many years ago ;-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

The mind is still very very willing. :)

Ali...

A portmanteau of relative and elastic ?

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Is that a kind of carrier bag? :)

Ali...

That as well.

A method of coining new words much used by Lewis Caroll

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Ah! Alice! I remember her well. + "My paws and whiskers" as Gizmo
would say.

exhaust system. Plus which you can't get a set of golf clubs in your boot
or a couple of skis on your roof rack. Added to which although you can pull

Rabbit...

OK tell us about the last time you played golf or went skiing, apart from
Skiing as in Spending the Kids Inheritance ???:-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

What inheritance? :(

Rabbit...

Oh there's always somethng and under Scottish law you can't disinherit any

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

But I ain't in Scotland, am I?

kids.

the birds with your car, that's as far as they get, 'cos there's no room
to get them in to take 'em away with you. What a drag. :)

Rabbit...

Talking from experience or hearsay ???;-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Guess!!! :)

Rabbit...

Hearsay or a good memory. Guess I'd go for a dream memory :-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

A very well remembered one too. :)

Rabbit...

You are my son and I claim my tenner ;-) Though his air con has packed up

Jensom Button...

Hello Mum :-)

Rabbit...

Hello son. Hope you can afford the repair to the air con ;-)

just months out of warranty he still can't see beyond Honda ;-)

Splodge...

I thought he was Jen's son:)))
Splodge

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

I thought you were supposed to deflate the airbag before driving off again.
:)

Rabbit...

Have your tried Kwik Fit ? Yes I know they are a franchise so CS can vary

pmj...

As it can in any business! - Franchise or not.

from place to place but I've had NP with my local one who have never tried
to con me, unlike National Tyre and Exhaust.

Pingu...

Any time Ive needed an Exhaust fixed, Ive gone to a place in Broomhil which
offer a lifetime guarentee with all their exhaust repairs. Never once made
me buy anything I didnt need, and on the one occasion I did need to take the
car back much later, they resolved the problem for free!

THen I used company vehicles and couldnt care less about the cost so jhust
got it sorted at someone elses expense. I will be loyal to that place though
and feel i may need to go there as a costomer again sometime reasonably

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Unfortunately that isn't the Broomhill here in Sheffield is it? :(

soon.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

I did ask earlier and apparently they have to get the system for the Celica
(stainless) from Toyota so there's little or no saving. The theory is -
that a stainless steel exhaust system shouldn't usually need replacing, so
Kwik Fit etc won't stock them.

pmj...

& down here, I have had the exact opposite experience...

Kwik Fit (the last time I tried them) were a bunch of incompetent,
expensive, useless people, & tried to charge extra for work that
didn't need to be done & for stuff that they had specifically been
told not to do.

Whereas National Tyre have always been (in my experience) competitively
priced, with helpful, courteous & knowledgeable staff.