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[terry paget]

Astra H 2008 petrol manual
Daughter in London rings up concerned about 'new noise'. Quickfit tells her it is blowing exhaust, quotes £440 to replace. That sounds hot to me, is that reasonable? 

[STEMO]

£440 might be ok for a full front to back exhaust, but does she really need that?

[Doctor Gollum]

An Omega exhaust costs about £250 fitted. You do the maths...

Joking aside, National Tyre may be a better bet than Kwikfit, and it could be a good life lesson for her to shop around and get it fixed

[Nick W]

£440 might be ok for a full front to back exhaust, but does she really need that?

you think that after 12 years, only one section of the exhaust will have rotted?

[STEMO]

£440 might be ok for a full front to back exhaust, but does she really need that?

you think that after 12 years, only one section of the exhaust will have rotted?

I think that Kwik fit are a bunch of cowboys and would replace it whether it was needed or not.

[Nick W]

£440 might be ok for a full front to back exhaust, but does she really need that?

you think that after 12 years, only one section of the exhaust will have rotted?

I think that Kwik fit are a bunch of cowboys and would replace it whether it was needed or not.

most mechanics prefer to fit an entire system in one go, rather than 3 separate visits from an increasingly irrate customer over the next seven months.

[Andy B]

National tyres quoted me over £200 for a complete exhaust for my daughter's Siecento .... which was about all the car was worth .... even Fiat themselves quoted less.

I bought one from a motorfactors for about £35 .... though it did take 3 attempts to get the right one 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Complete cat back setup is circa £100 delivered from the usual suspects (e.g. as per the Omega V6 suppliers)

Not hard to change usually either (front pipe to cat nuts being the worst bit)

[terry paget]

Thanks to all for advice. Cheapest cat is about £100, cheapest exhaust system again about £100.I will let daughter enquire if quote is complete system or cat back, and price from National Tyes. Have members any experience of detaching cat section from cylinder head? I have had bad experiences detaching exhaust manifolds from 2.0 Omega cylinder heads.

[terry paget]

I have changed one Astra H exhaust system, cat back. I changed all 3 sections, could not easily separate the sections, so cut it up with an angle grinder. I imagine that is what Quickfit were quoting, the cat should be all right, and looks quite difficult to remove from the head. As said above, trickiest bit was undoing the 3 bolts holding flexi section to catalyst.
I see no harm in letting daughter carry on using the car as it is until Easter, then bringing it home for the fitting of 3 new rear sections.

Has anyone removed the catalyst from an Astra? I see from e-bay pictures that the cat bolts direct to the head. Do the bolts unscrew easily from the head? I ask because I have a donor car in my drive. Is the cat worth saving?

[Andy B]

......
I see no harm in letting daughter carry on using the car as it is until Easter, then bringing it home for the fitting of 3 new rear sections.  ....

I thought you were cutting the apron strings Terry ..... 

[Doctor Gollum]

 

On several points.

[dave the builder]

the cat is a manicat ,exhaust outlet manifold and cat combined
your best to keep the original cat ,unless it's damaged ,not working
the flexi joint on the front pipe is a common fail point
about £30 -£35
rear box is stainless IIRC
I've only ever had to replace the front pipe ,which has a post cat lambda
a local garage would probably replace the front pipe (if that is the only issue) for circa £120

example clicky £31.71

[terry paget]

the cat is a manicat ,exhaust outlet manifold and cat combined
your best to keep the original cat ,unless it's damaged ,not working
the flexi joint on the front pipe is a common fail point
about £30 -£35
rear box is stainless IIRC
I've only ever had to replace the front pipe ,which has a post cat lambda
a local garage would probably replace the front pipe (if that is the only issue) for circa £120

example clicky £31.71

Thanks Dave. That's not how I remember it. I don't recall the post cat lambda in the front pipe. What year did that come in? Son Ben's 2006 Astra H should be here tomorrow, I will have a look. On the one I changed, the pipe went over the rear axle, and as I could not separate the 2 rear sections I had to cut it in two to remove it. Cath's car is a 2008, Jonny's is a 2010, the donor is  2004. I forget which one I changed the exhaust on. I fear it was the 2008 estate wrecked in London, insurer paid me £2000.   

[terry paget]

Checking my records, I did not record which car I fitted the new exhaust to - very careless. I did note that at its MOT in April 2019 Cath's 2008 Astra had a blowing exhaust flexi joint, so no surprise that now it's noisy - I bought it in July 2019. I must check whether the new exhaust is on the donor car.