Hi All.

So I took Mario out today, he's not been out in a week and he was seemingly fine last weekend & weekend before going up & down to Nottinghamshire.

But, he sounds completely different and a bit rough today. It's not the engine running poorly. Every so often I did hear a little rattle like something was loose. He's also now a lot louder.

It's towards the front of the car, so I think part of the issue is a pipe hole before the main silencer or a disconnection between sections.

Is there a known common fault or weak point on the Stilo for exhausts?. He's a 54 plate 1.6 Active with about 53k on the clock.

How difficult are exhaust parts to replace? Do you need a ramp? I'm lucky that I get access to oxy/acl sets via work, I'm feeling a bit adventurous and I'm about to be briefly skint swapping to a new job. So If this would be something fairly simple, I might be tempted to have a go.

Edwardo85 said:

Hi All.

So I took Mario out today, he's not been out in a week and he was seemingly fine last weekend & weekend before going up & down to Nottinghamshire.

But, he sounds completely different and a bit rough today. It's not the engine running poorly. Every so often I did hear a little rattle like something was loose. He's also now a lot louder.

It's towards the front of the car, so I think part of the issue is a pipe hole before the main silencer or a disconnection between sections.

Is there a known common fault or weak point on the Stilo for exhausts?. He's a 54 plate 1.6 Active with about 53k on the clock.

How difficult are exhaust parts to replace? Do you need a ramp? I'm lucky that I get access to oxy/acl sets via work, I'm feeling a bit adventurous and I'm about to be briefly skint swapping to a new job. So If this would be something fairly simple, I might be tempted to have a go.

Click to expand...

Sounds like your exhaust has failed. No way of knowing exactly which section or where it has broken though other than to get underneath and have a look to see what isn't right.

No common faults, exhausts are a wear and tear part. A product of the cat conversion process is water so they rot out in time. Exhaust parts are bolt on but you'll struggle like hell to achieve anything meaningful if you're working on the driveway. A ramp is what's required to get underneath the car properly and have room to wield tools and yank on things.

Whilst all exhaust parts are a purely bolt on pieces without fail the rust up and seize. The joints in exhaust sections are often sleeved sections and these too rust and seize together.

For what it'll cost you to get put right it's usually far easier to take the car to an exhaust shop. Most tyre places do tyres and exhausts. Just get a local friendly one of them to sort it.

Thanks. It is a 13 year old car and I think it's fair wear of the exhaust.

I will have to let a garage do it anyway. We are going away on Wednesday and I don't want to chance a 70 mile trip. I would never get the parts and time to complete it myself before then.

Edwardo85 said:

Thanks. It is a 13 year old car and I think it's fair wear of the exhaust.

I will have to let a garage do it anyway. We are going away on Wednesday and I don't want to chance a 70 mile trip. I would never get the parts and time to complete it myself before then.

Click to expand...

The most common part of the exhaust that fails is the flexi at the front, its there to take strain and allow the exhaust to flex under load - my went twice on my old 1.2 - cant comment for other engines though...

Hopefully that would be all. But at the same time I remember it only just passing the MOT emissions in October, so maybe a new Cat is required.

Just what you need the week before holiday and 3 weeks before changing job and payday.

Might be time to move on I think. In two years it's taken 6 tyres,tracking, clutch kit, both clutch cylinders, radiator, discs and pads all round, rear caliper,both door check straps, front drop links... For what I've spent keeping it, I could have financed something similar brand or almost new. This will probably be the last repair I'm willing to fork out for.

Edwardo85 said:

Hopefully that would be all. But at the same time I remember it only just passing the MOT emissions in October, so maybe a new Cat is required.

Just what you need the week before holiday and 3 weeks before changing job and payday.

Might be time to move on I think. In two years it's taken 6 tyres,tracking, clutch kit, both clutch cylinders, radiator, discs and pads all round, rear caliper,both door check straps, front drop links... For what I've spent keeping it, I could have financed something similar brand or almost new. This will probably be the last repair I'm willing to fork out for.

Click to expand...

My first flexi cost £28 then £20 for it fitting - was done in around 10 - 15 mins on a lift .

One of the cheapest repairs i have had to do lol, oh well - the new stilo i have has just threatened to start breaking my wallet - check glow plugs came up on saturday, im sure one has failed - it was a bit smokier on start up this morning, only brings up the fault when the car is cold - sometimes it doesnt come up at all so it could be that a glow plug is intermittently failing or the module is stuffed - havent really got time to check it yet.

And last insult to injury - my insurance company have renewed my policy - its gone up 2 grand!! not happy at all, especially since no-one has contacted me or emailed me regarding this, i wanted my years no claims from them and i was jumping ship (£1100) all in to insure myself with another company... so i wont be paying £3,500 (or should i say £4,200 with interest).

The garage have called. Replaced the whole exhaust. But it came in at £150. I might forgive him a little longer!

I was pricing parts yesterday. By whole exhaust I'm not sure what they can mean. The Cat on its own is just over £100. Middle and rear silencer come in at about £80 together. If it's just these two, it might make sense. 80 for parts, 70 for time/Labour. But then the flexi would cost as well...still seems too low.

I will of course be asking for it on the ramp. Plenty of horror stories of people being conned and finding tape...

Insurers love to shaft renewing customers. But them being loyal to customers is not worth it. People always jump at the lowest new price.. catch 22!

dtimmins1985 said:

And last insult to injury - my insurance company have renewed my policy - its gone up 2 grand!! not happy at all, especially since no-one has contacted me or emailed me regarding this, i wanted my years no claims from them and i was jumping ship (£1100) all in to insure myself with another company... so i wont be paying £3,500 (or should i say £4,200 with interest).

Click to expand...

**** the bed.

My Abarth costs me £296 for the year lol

£3500??

Sounds like the lad has got some 19" rims, a bad boy exhaust, slammed to the max (I'm not sure what that is, but I know insurance companies won't like it) and go-faster stripes... or he was a bit naughty when he was younger.. like 100 in a 30mph limit or something..

Ralf S.

My car is standard in trim, sporting model... just ripping me because of previous points however they have gone and are over 5 years old so no need to declair hence jumping ship.

However i have declaired the remap and dash cam. Im down to 1100 quid now lol. Nearly 32 but with only 1 yrs no claims... gutting living in bradford.

I would have thought dash cam would make policy cheaper, not more expensive...

My brother is a commercial insurance broker by trade. He says the dash cam is going to be the next "black box" with insurance companies starting to demand the driver have one.

He says it's already very common on road freight policies (HGVs) for them to be required to have CCTV / dash cams onboard since the crash for cash schemes kicked off a few years back.

I'll admit driving around yesterday I genuinely thought for the first time I wash I had a dash cam in my car, purely because the ineptitude of some of the drivers I was having to be very careful I avoided. The thought struck me for the first time in a long time that one of these muppets was genuinely going to cost me my Abarth and I'd have no way of defending her or myself.

Artermis said:

I would have thought dash cam would make policy cheaper, not more expensive...

My brother is a commercial insurance broker by trade. He says the dash cam is going to be the next "black box" with insurance companies starting to demand the driver have one.

He says it's already very common on road freight policies (HGVs) for them to be required to have CCTV / dash cams onboard since the crash for cash schemes kicked off a few years back.

I'll admit driving around yesterday I genuinely thought for the first time I wash I had a dash cam in my car, purely because the ineptitude of some of the drivers I was having to be very careful I avoided. The thought struck me for the first time in a long time that one of these muppets was genuinely going to cost me my Abarth and I'd have no way of defending her or myself.

Click to expand...

You are absoloutley correct.

However, the insurance company im jumping ship from didnt give me a discount for dashcam, instead they wanted to charge me an admin fee mid policy to add it but they waivered that and went and added it anyway... once you have declared it - it has to be on all the time, its stated on my policy... total muppetts and lets not go down the black box route... been there done that, earned a discount mid policy then they hiked it up... would never have one again.

OH heck yeh black boxes are the worst. Wouldn't have one if my life depended on it.

Mate of mine had one and he kept getting 'fines' through from his insurance company every time they thought he'd been driving like a ****.

Aye and if they detect you have gone over 100mph they void your policy and cancel it... that was one of the terms on mine lol.

dtimmins1985 said:

Aye and if they detect you have gone over 100mph they void your policy and cancel it... that was one of the terms on mine lol.

Click to expand...

That's just racketeering isn't it. You have to declare that for the rest of your motoring life to every insurance company you ever deal with again. And try getting an insurance policy when you have to tick that box that says have you ever had an insurance policy cancelled or void by your insurer. Prices go through the roof.

I ended up taking a case all the way to the ombudsman after an insurance company wrongly voided my policy. I typed my wife's drivers licence date in wrong on an online application and took out a policy. They asked for licence copies and then we noticed the error. Completely innocent genuine error. They went full retard, charged me a bunch of penalties so they could keep the premium and then void it, rather than trying to work with me to resolve.

Their arguement was that I deliberately tried to defraud them and because I was more than a month wrong on the date (we're talking like 34 days or something...) I wasn't allowed to change it.

ended up appealing through the ombudsman then they didn't comply with the ombudsman's deadlines or anything. Was a right mess.

In the end the ombudsman found in my favour, said they had no need to cancel the policy and there was no evidence on any malicious intend on my part and I believe they got a fine and a good hiding from the ombudsman for their behavior.

The real laugh is that throughout all of this I still held a perfectly good, valid insurance policy with them on my other car. They didn't mention that!

Moral of the story - avoid 1st Central insurance like the plague. You should check out the number of complaints about them haha.

I get incredibly twitchy about taking out insurance policies these days. I wont take out a policy without speaking to someone on the phone now, even if I get the quote done online.

1st Central are utterly useless.

I was with them last year. My Mother was also with them.

Unfortunately she suffered from a heart attack. The first Sunday she was home, some f*cktard drink driver totalled his Focus into her Fiesta, taking out 2 neighbours cars in the process.

My Mom was in no state to be dealing with it. Trying to get 1st Central to play ball was ridiculous. They wouldn't speak to me, even though I explained my Mom was too ill to get involved. I had everything they needed information wise, but until I got my Mom to speak to them for a good 10 minutes...they would not help. She was barely conscious.

Their out of office hours support is abysmal. They dragged their heels arranging for the Fiesta to be recovered. It took over a day for it to be put onto a loader. It was just left sticking out in the position it came to rest after being struck.

When I came to renew my insurance and move away from them. This incident caused me no end of grief. My application was refused for having an incident and drunk driver marks on my file. Even though none of the vehicles involved were mine, I was not involved in the actual crash & I won't even touch a pint if I know I'm driving home. Elephant told me that it would have been 1st Centrla who made a mistake in including me. They wiped it off after I explained.

Only Co-Op have been worse. Our old Punto hit a mate's house and they kept sending paperwork addressed to us to my friend. They told me they needed to discuss the claim with the other party. But when they called they told them they could only speak to the policy holder. They didn't arrange for any inspection of the building or recover the car. My mate had to get her own quotes for work in the end and they initially refused to pay..... 1St Central & Co-Op insurance policies should be avoided at all costs.