The heatshield on the nearside downpipes on the SDI had come adrift and
was rattling. It's a Rimmer Bros SS sports system.
It appeared to have pulled a spot weld out and the exhaust was blowing, so
an MOT (due shortly) fail. Rimmers said it has a lifetime warranty, but
wanted me to send it back for either repair or replacement. Unfortunately,
my old bones ain't up to crawling around underneath the car on the street
in this weather. KwikFit etc couldn't help. So I was considering just
cutting my losses and buying a new down pipe from Rimmers and getting it
fitted at an exhaust place.

Having nothing better to do I looked up Yellow Pages and there was a SS
maker listed - Top Gear in Queenstown Rd Battersea. So I phoned up and
they said, yes, they could fix it. Went straight there. Seemed to be a one
man band - a charming young Australian (or New Zealander) who said he'd
fix it for 50 quid there and then. Which he did, taking it off and TIG
welding it. He also spent some time getting a better alignment between the
flange and manifold - and redid all the other joints which he found to be
leaking slightly. And removed the tailpipe and re-polished it. And
replaced all the 'O' ring hangers. So near as dammit removed it all and
started again. Two hours work for 50 quid. ;-) They can fabricate any
exhaust in SS actually on the very well equipped premises. I was impressed.
Most unusual for me. ;-)

--
*Horn broken. - Watch for finger.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
The heatshield on the nearside downpipes on the SDI had come adrift and
was rattling. It's a Rimmer Bros SS sports system.
It appeared to have pulled a spot weld out and the exhaust was blowing, so
an MOT (due shortly) fail. Rimmers said it has a lifetime warranty, but
wanted me to send it back for either repair or replacement. Unfortunately,
my old bones ain't up to crawling around underneath the car on the street
in this weather. KwikFit etc couldn't help. So I was considering just
cutting my losses and buying a new down pipe from Rimmers and getting it
fitted at an exhaust place.

Having nothing better to do I looked up Yellow Pages and there was a SS
maker listed - Top Gear in Queenstown Rd Battersea. So I phoned up and
they said, yes, they could fix it. Went straight there. Seemed to be a one
man band - a charming young Australian (or New Zealander) who said he'd
fix it for 50 quid there and then. Which he did, taking it off and TIG
welding it. He also spent some time getting a better alignment between the
flange and manifold - and redid all the other joints which he found to be
leaking slightly. And removed the tailpipe and re-polished it. And
replaced all the 'O' ring hangers. So near as dammit removed it all and
started again. Two hours work for 50 quid. ;-) They can fabricate any
exhaust in SS actually on the very well equipped premises. I was
impressed.
Most unusual for me. ;-)

Maybe he was slack and a bit bored. :-)
It does seem extraordinarily cheap.
How long was he working on it?
Mike.

In article ,
Mike G wrote:
Maybe he was slack and a bit bored. :-)

Mine was the only car in the bays, and none parked outside looked like
they were being worked on.

It does seem extraordinarily cheap.
How long was he working on it?

I was there for about 2.5 hrs - but he stopped to chat to a potential
customer.

--
*If God dropped acid, would he see people?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote in message
...
The heatshield on the nearside downpipes on the SDI had come adrift and
was rattling. It's a Rimmer Bros SS sports system.
It appeared to have pulled a spot weld out and the exhaust was blowing, so
an MOT (due shortly) fail. Rimmers said it has a lifetime warranty, but
wanted me to send it back for either repair or replacement.

It looks as though the welding might be a weakness of the Rimmers system.
After 10 years, my back silencer on my 2000 is now showing signs on the
outside that the welds holding the baffles on the inside are going to give
way eventually and leave a hole for the exhaust to leak through. Not an MOT
failure yet, but when it is, it will be a nuisance having to take the old
pipe off and have the car unusable until Rimmers send a replacement.

Thanks for the tip-off.

Jim