26 replies to this topic

[Owl_Eye]

It will be fine. 

 

You wont set fire to anything under the car thats jut not realistic.

 

You might get a headache, you might feel tired, your ears will probably be ringing when you get there, but in real talk, you wont do the car any harm. 

 

Just be aware that if you do get pulled over, the police can do something about it (dont quote me on what)

 

 

I wish people on here would just answer the question asked and not other things. I think it is fairly safe to assume that this guy knows what happens when something is loud for a long time. give the him some respect and assume he has some common sense.

 

 

Thanks for the comment, I was under the impression that it might be fine police-wise since i'll ******* and say that it just happened to be dangling off when I was at the service station, and so I removed it safely and placed it on the backseat.

[Burnard]

you just have to be very careful of the fumes and be sensible about the noise. for your health, its probably not a good idea, but as said wont do the car any harm. 

im not saying its a good idea, or condoning it, but if it has to be done, then you should get away with it. 

[nicklouse]

Personally I would get your dad to post the bits up to you. And get the bit of welding done or hire a welder.

Driving that far will not be fun. Will take you way longer than you think.

But as far as the car goes no problem.

[AVV IT]

I'm not convinced that telling the Police that your exhaust has just fallen off is really going to change anything. Regardless of when the defect occurred, if the police find you driving it and that you're not just driving it to the nearest garage or getting it off the motorway to a place of safety, you could end up with a fine and penalty points. If they consider it to be a minor defect, then they can issue you with a Vehicle Defect Rectification Scheme Notice instead, which gives you 14 days to rectify the problem, and present the car to them for inspection afterwards, or be prosecuted. As I said earlier though, when they discover that you've got hundreds of miles of your journey left to go, I really can't see them letting you carry on with your journey.

If however they deem it to be a major defect (& faults involving emissions can be deemed as major defects) the police have the right to impound the vehicle, leaving you with an impound/release fee as well as penalty points and a fine up to £2.5k. You'll then have to arrange for the car to be recovered on to wherever you then choose to get it fixed as well.

Basically driving it to Cornwall like that could well end up costing you an awful lot more than paying someone to fix it at home would, and getting caught on a journey of that distance that involves going through the patches of so many different Police forces is virtually unavoidable.

[Italianjob]

The police wont impound your car for a mere exhaust problem, I was driving around for a week with half mine hanging off (stupid I know) before a motorbike cop stopped beside me in traffic and told me to pull over, he said "I know a duff exhaust when I hear one" All I got was a producer(show all documents at your nearest police station) and a ticket that gave me 7 days to get it fixed otherwise Id risk a fine if it wasnt fixed. He had no proof of how long it was like that, so to say they will impound your car is just ridiculous.

[AVV IT]

I really don't think you can say that for definite, just because that's not what that particular officer did in the specific circumstances of your particular case. The point is that they have the power to do so if they feel it is necessary/justified, and like many offences how the police choose to deal with it is down to the discretion of the individual officer to a large extent. We're talking about someone driving 300+ miles here with no silencer and the majority of the exhaust missing though, once he's been stopped they're hardly likely to let him carry on for the rest of the journey. If on the off chance that they do, it's unlikely that the next police force along the way will be as lenient when they then stop him as well. I reckon that the very least they'll do is to insist that he gets it recovered, (or if they're feeling really generous) that he takes it directly to the nearest garage to get it repaired and then follow him to make sure he gets there.

[Rog46]

It will be fine. 
 
You wont set fire to anything under the car thats jut not realistic.
 
You might get a headache, you might feel tired, your ears will probably be ringing when you get there, but in real talk, you wont do the car any harm.

I don't know how well a cat strips the carbon monoxide but it's poisonous! A headache could be the least of you problems. Headaches come from low-level exposure more sends you to sleep (not good when driving) more still and you never wake up!

[Gerbil367]

That sort of distance - not a good idea, especially for your own health, never mind about the car. 

 

I'm surprised that your Dad hasnt told you not to do it, I wouldnt let my son even try it.  In the end, its just a car and not worth dying or killing someone else over.  If it sounds over-dramatic - have a spin around A+E sometime and see all the people who thought "it will never happen to me"!  Sorry if that upsets some people, but if you are asking you probably have doubts too.

[TMW.Racing]

Afraid I have to agree with almost everyone else - main problems being

 

- That you could poison yourself, at best giving yourself a headache but potentially causing you to become impaired, which is not only dangerous to yourself but to others if it causes you to loose control (and if you cause anyone harm from this then at the very least you could find yourself prosecuted)

- The noise will be very bad, which can also have its dangers - not being able to hear warning sirens, car problems, horns etc. (Which wont be helped by wearing ear defenders)

- You stand a very good chance of getting your collar felt by the police, as you could have the vehicle taken off you if they deem it to be unsafe to yourself or others.

 

I sympathise with the cost issues etc (and have done some pretty silly cost evasion driving when I was a student!!) but i'm afraid it's just not worth the risk - the question I learnt to ask myself is would you let a loved one sit in the passenger seat if you drove it? If the answer is no then you shouldn't be in there either.

 

Hope you get this sorted without any problems though!

[DannyTip]

I don't have ramps and I don't trust jacks ever since one of my friends got a disc pressed into his eye socket. His son found him screaming whilst being crushed into the ground with a disc pressed into his eye. He lost his eye and had some brain damage, it's horrendous.

You should never trust a jack. Always use axle stands.

[zerobelow]

Find a local muffler shop and get an estimate. At least here in the states, I got a custom exhaust hanging and install, with welding custom mounts, for my mini marcos. Total cost was $70,(under 50gbp) and that included some other work, including adding a bung for an o2 sensor. Probably less than your 6h drive will use in fuel. A quick look at google maps, they calculate that the fuel price for a compact car will be 40GBP each way. You can probably get a fair bit of work done for 80GBP that the round trip would cost you.

 

If you do the drive (I am a fan of irrational road trips, myself), at least get a carbon monoxide detector. They have them in houses these days, and are often battery powered.

 

And if you get pulled over with the exhaust in your back seat, they will likely know that it didn't "just" fall off, or it'd be melting a hole in your upholstery.

Edited by zerobelow, 19 November 2014 - 01:26 AM.

[samsfern]

The police would probably pg9 it, so it can't be driven any further on the road, until it has been recovered, fixed and approved by an mot test centre. You'd likely also be summonsed to court for driving a vehicle in an unroadworthy state and get points and a fine.

Edited by samsfern, 19 November 2014 - 08:59 AM.