Semi OT : Exhaust bracket/hanger replacement

It's a failed weld, the hanger bar is still there. I'd have thought that a *good* garage or exhaust centre would be able to weld it back satisfactorily. They might actually replace the two sides with a single piece of bar.

It's not a simple one to fudge yourself, but if you can bend some steel strip you could put a standard U-bolt type exhaust clamp around the pipe, attach the bent strip to the clamp, and poke the end back into the rubber hanger. But you need to bend and twist the strip to the right shape, ideally using standard blacksmith techniques.

Snap - 2001 ford focus.

I couldn't find and suitable bracket and 2 off garages didn't want to weld to the back of the cat, or didn't want the job.

I bodged up a DIY bracket.

One of these

around the pipe and bolted to

which was bent at both ends so that the holes lined up with the holes in the rubber mounts. Any excess length cut off. Metal bent by placing the bar in a vice at the bend line and hitting it with a hammer. Make a cardboard template to get required size and angles.

On each side a coach bolt through the rubber mount and through a hole in the bar and held at the bar end with a nylon insert nut (locking nuts). An half inch or so of the coach bolts are free to move in the rubber mounts - in much the same way as the original metal studs.

Luckily my local independent family run hardware store had the majority of the items - in a shop where you wander around and pick the items out of the bins - and where you can buy one offs and nails etc. by weight.

Complete PITA and you need the car on ramps or similar to gain enough access.

Great minds think alike!

Unless you're doing this yourself from bits you already have, I suspect just putting in a new cat is going to be easier and cheaper:

Randomly selected example:

Theo

I was surprised how reasonable that price is. Don't think I have replaced a Cat yet.

Cats. are normally close to the engine as they need to heat up quickly. Sure it's not just a silencer?

Thanks for that, I'll do a temporary bodge with some coat hanger wire or something to get me by, whilst I see about procuring the parts you suggested. :-)

Coathanger exhaust fixes tend to be permanent in my world. Rubber loops might reduce noise some but they're hopeless reliability wise. Bull over substance as always.

NT

The rubber loop is there to prevent *fatigue* of the steel hangers.

If it causes more failures than it prevents it's counterproductive. The last car had them, and once I replaced the rubber bands with wire there were no more problems.

NT

Rubber hangers are there to help prevent noise and vibration being transferred from the exhaust to car body. Wire ain't going to do that. And will actually create noise as the exhaust moves around. You can buy assorted sized rubber hangers in Halfords for about a quid each. They'll last several years. Why on earth use anything worse?

Indeed. The difference however is entirely trivial.

Not often, and to a trivial degree.

We lost a few per year, resulting in exhaust hanging down at risk of breaking.

Quite, hence I use wire. It's trouble free & doesn't kill exhausts.

Perhaps this is another newsgroup triviality that will develop into a huge long discussion with people vehement about both options, and Mr Speed writing long repetitive replies that only one person ever reads.

NT

Are you certain you were using the correct ones? If simply hangers, I've found they last many years. On the aftermarket exhaust on my old Rover, they are horizontal at the tail pipe, so under much more tension (and a bugger to fit). But still have a decent life. The ones I'm talking about are a good 1/2" in diameter rubber. The same ones used as hangers in the middle of the exhaust have lasted many many years.

I'd not be surprised if an exhaust place fitted lighter gauge ones - easier to stretch - but obviously shorter life too.

Even though I had the same problem it was the original exhaust on a fifteen year old car. I doubt if the rubber mounts caused the problem. One half of the hanger had rusted off and the other half was hanging on by a piece of rusted metal around quarter of the original diameter. The point of failure was at the weld to the exhaust pipe just behind the CAT.

There must be a good reason why millions of cars on the road have rubber mounted exhausts rather than wire mounted exhausts.

last car had them, and once I replaced the rubber bands with wire there we re no more problems.

Lots of cash is spent on pointless junk on cars. Modern cars are all about a certain image of impression that to me means absolutely nothing. A sense of disconnection with the road, naff pretentions of style etc etc. Anyway, a rubber band is cheaper than a steel fixing plus slower assembly.

There's also always engineering pushing it a little too far to try to make progress. And it isn't the manufacturer's problem if the car has more issue s later - indeed it tends to profit them.

FWIW I wish we could have the best of both worlds, the safety, economy and roadholding of today's cars without all the rubbish they fit like electric windows, remote control interior lights, bad attempts at styling and so on.

NT

Don't be silly. Even the very most expensive cars use insulating suspension for the exhaust system.

You may not have noticed, but engines ain't bolted down either. The exhaust is rigidly connected to the engine. If you bolt one down without the other something would have to give...

I'd not like to go back to a car with manual windows. Which make it difficult for the driver to open other than his own.

Remote control of interior lights? You mean remote unlocking, which switches on the lights?

It's the improvement in vehicle electronics that not only improves the engine efficiency, but makes such toys affordable. And if they are well designed have a decent life too.

I bought one car used which would be described as fully loaded. The only toy I found rather pointless was the memory electric seats and steering column. Mainly because I was the only driver - it might well have been handy on a car with more than one.

Pretty well all the others proved useful - even although I may not have seen the point in them at first.

The first car I drove on a regular basis had a windscreen wiper in front of the passenger as an optional extra.

Its one of the things I wish we had and will be on the list for the next one, I often forget to check after the missus has been driving and she has left the seat a long way forward, Unfortunately I can longer fit in the same small gap she can.

Heated seats I left off the tick box when we specced the present car as I had always thought them a bit superfluous in our climate,then one morning got up with a back pain . A mate was taking us to the NEC for the day and seeing the problem put the heat on, it felt great, I was on the phone to our dealer and got the option added just before the factory commenced assembly . The missus who sometimes has to start work at 5 am thinks it one of the best things she has ever had in a car as they are warm a good time before the heater.

G.Harman