Am I being ripped off

[eppiblue]

Ive had to find a new Mechanic in Nth London after moving areas. I need a muffler replacement, back box and possibly the whole system, rear anti roll bars and a full service, replacing filters etc...

He's quoting £800.... £500 for the muffler work alone!

Sounds expensive to me?!

[Northern Bongolow]

drive it up to lancashire, stay a night in a hotel, i will do the work and give you £500 pounds change.

[alimey]

I thoroughly recommend Fred & Gerry at Discount Trucks in Newbury. It's only an hour on the M4.

[eppiblue]

Thanks for the suggestions, Unfortunately due to work commitments I wont have a chance to get out of London for the next couple of weeks.

I'm considering buying the exhaust from Regis on ebay for about £140... or could go for a stainless steel version for about £250. Then I imagine its only 2 hours labour for the mechanic to fit? Can anyone advise here?

[Simon Jones]

Be careful as there are two different types of exhausts depending on whether you have the winter pack with the warm up valve. If you dont have the valve, you need a 3 part system, but with the valve it will be 4 part. Many folk remove the valve & go for the 'standard' 3 part system. Exhausts can be a pig to fit expecially if you get a stainless steel one that is not a perfect copy. Unlike steel tubing, you can't just heat it up & bash it into shape. I ended up paying someone else to add a 2nd flexi section in so it would fit. So my suggestion would be to get the garage to supply & fit it so there it doesn't get complicated if it does not fit properly. Certainly the prices you've quoted are steep when you can get a stainless one custom made to fit for about £250.

[eppiblue]

OK, I will hold off sorting out the exhaust until I can find a place in or near London that can do me a stainless steel one fitted for under £300

[mikeonb4c]

I found the back box and centre section a complete doddle to fit, though ramps are needed to gain access (you might be able to put 2 wheels up on a decent curb. the front section (on mine at least) doesn't seem to corrode nearly so quickly so may well not need changing.

Stainless steel may well be noisier - not everyone's cup of tea if it is.

Any small garage could do your droplinks - there are good BF recommended ones in South Croydon and Lewisham for starters.

Oil change dead simple and I do it with a Pela pump (cost £30 approx to buy so no ned to remove sump plug or spill oil). Read one or two points to watch for with Pela pump (e.g. not sticking sucker probe in too far before you do the job). Oil filter should be v easy to change at the same time.

Air filter could not be easier. Fuel filter trickier - let the garage do that if worried.

Hope this helps. Good luck, keep us posted.

PS - I'm 60 yrs old with basic car servicing skills, and not especially agile, just to put it in perspective

[eppiblue]

Yeah fair call and if I had the time and place to do it (I live in an apartment in N1 London) I would def be getting my hands dirty!

I've had the mechanic complete the service and the links, but I'm looking for someone to sort out the rear box / replace exhaust system. I like the idea of having something custom built / fitted by a specialist but its just a matter of finding someone in London. Would be nice to gain some clearance at the rear too.

[umbongocat]

We take ours to 321 Away in Berkshire. It's about an hours drive (not in rush hour) to them in Berkshire. Julian who is on here is very good.

[mikeonb4c]

We take ours to 321 Away in Berkshire. It's about an hours drive (not in rush hour) to them in Berkshire. Julian who is on here is very good.

Darn - I was going to mention him but thought he must be too far off. But a better drive for a N Londoner than Croydon or Lewisham!

[umbongocat]

We take ours to 321 Away in Berkshire. It's about an hours drive (not in rush hour) to them in Berkshire. Julian who is on here is very good.

Darn - I was going to mention him but thought he must be too far off. But a better drive for a N Londoner than Croydon or Lewisham!

Yep.. Croydon can take as long to get to from North London than all the way to Bristol! l

Also we don't know any of the garages in North London so tend to stick with who we trust. Rather know they're going to be doing a good job and not rip us off

[Northern Bongolow]

for custom made exhausts look up a company called powerflow, they have local fabricators/fitters in all areas.
they are good and reasonable,and build/ fit it to the car/van. you can even choose your tail piece.

[eppiblue]

for custom made exhausts look up a company called powerflow, they have local fabricators/fitters in all areas.
they are good and reasonable,and build/ fit it to the car/van. you can even choose your tail piece.

Cool, just spoke to a powerflow fitter in NW9 that will do the fit and install for about £320.

[dave_aber]

Give MIJ a call

http://mijexhaust.com/index.php/product ... es/33.html

I got a full stainless system (2-part) sent from Walsall to the North East of Scotland, on a genuine next day delivery (nothing ever arrives here next day, but this did), ordered 4.30PM one Thursday, arrived 5.30PM on the Friday.

Fitted myself in under an hour. Perfect fit. Noise level is pretty much the same as the old steel one. Quieter in fact than the old one when it was removed, but it was blowing by then.

£250 all-in.

[mikeonb4c]

Give MIJ a call

http://mijexhaust.com/index.php/product ... es/33.html

I got a full stainless system (2-part) sent from Walsall to the North East of Scotland, on a genuine next day delivery (nothing ever arrives here next day, but this did), ordered 4.30PM one Thursday, arrived 5.30PM on the Friday.

Fitted myself in under an hour. Perfect fit. Noise level is pretty much the same as the old steel one. Quieter in fact than the old one when it was removed, but it was blowing by then.

£250 all-in.

...and if you can't fit it yourself, £70 should buy a lot of 'foreigner' exhaust fitters time - MIJ have (I seem to recall) done quite a lot of Bongo work and purchasors have been pleased. If the quietness bit Dave mentions is accurate, I'd place great value on that as there''s nothing worse (I think) than a cheap sounding exhaust, and stainless steel does not damp pulsed sound as well as mild steel.