Exhaust joining sleeve clamps failure

[rum4mo]

Not a Fabia but a VW Group small car of the age group that MK2 Fabia is in:- my daughter was complaining about a noise like a heat shield coming loose under her late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V 85PS SC, so I got her to bring it to me, kind of expecting the front flexi to have failed so checked up on the availability of a front exhaust repair section to save paying to replace the cat as well - although being quite happy to need to fit some bits of tin under some heat shield retainers.

In the event, the front flexi looked okay as did the heat shields, but what had failed were BOTH clamps on the exhaust joining sleeve under the centre of the car!  Now one failing at that age is okay, I had that on my old Passat 4Motion when it was that age and I just replaced all 4 clamps - they just rot with salt and water. As I had initially bought the wrong size of joining sleeves for that 2000 Passat years ago, they were still available to use and the clamps were the correct size - nice when something only takes 30 minutes to fix!

 

I'm just bringing this up as it might be the right time for some people to check the condition of these clamps - before they fail and cause other problems/inconvenience, just have a look under the car below the line of the front seats.

[Ootohere]

This is a common fail on a vRS.

[spartacus68]

A side note, don't even try to undo the bolts on these things. Angle grinder all the way! Go easy, the sleeve will be fine.

[rum4mo]

10 hours ago, spartacus68 said:

A side note, don't even try to undo the bolts on these things. Angle grinder all the way! Go easy, the sleeve will be fine.

 

That was what I was thinking when I thought that I'd really be better to change both of these clamps - but both were rusted through completely and the sleeve was free to move and so the exhaust had drooped down and was touching the small crossmember.

 

It was just a case of biggish screwdriver in to lever/open the broken clip over the pipe/sleeve, at least on that car there was enough space/room to slide the sleeve along and off the pipe at the join, on my old 2000 VW Passat V6 that was not possible so the new clamps all 4 of them needed to be opened up and forced over the pipes then bent back into shape before tightening them - a bit of a faff when 3 of the old clamps were not rotted through so also needed to get opened up and levered off!

 

I'd guess that the first clamp broke but the other one held the sleeve tight enough to go unnoticed, then the second one broke and the sleeve opened up and let the pipe drop down a bit - lucky that small crossmember is there to limit its downward movement!

 

[spartacus68]

I was back under the Fabia again today (as you do) repairing the sleeve. When I had the cat out to repair the flexi pipe to the DFP I had to use jubilee clips. That was temporary until I could repair properly. 58mm exhaust clamps now on. Litle grease on the threads. Dont know why I bother as this car is going in 6 months. Old habits and all that!

[Chic]

Just had quote from dealership for centre clamp replacement £70.49

[Ootohere]

@Chic

Are you going to go to an Independent Exhaust Centre or even a National one or a Independent or Local Garage and maybe pay 1/2 or even less than that? 

[Chic]

Aye getting a bit fed up with stupid pricing for a bit of metal costing max £15 and labour time of 20 mins

[Ootohere]

@Chic   20 mins actual labour time. 

So do it your self then, or have someone that does it in 20 minutes do it.

 

The main dealers have a receptionist that should check your car for damage before a tech / fitters takes your car into the workshop, does the job, maybe a free visual inspection, 

/ health check, fills out a work sheet, has the car back around the front and the keys back to the desk.

They have high overheads that needs paying for.