14 replies to this topic

[All new Shmoo]

Hi

While driving on the motorway in my Smax yesterday the back exhaust box fell off. The car was recovered and dropped at my local mechanic where inspection revealed that a complete new exhaust from the catalytic converter back to the tailpipe was required. The car is an 07 plate and has only done 63,000 miles, typically long distance (no exhaust killing stop start driving) so I am very disappointed to be shelling out the best part of £400 to get a new exhaust fitted. The pipe connecting the back box to the cat was absolutely shot to pieces and was beyond the wwear expected of a car this age and mileage.

Has any one else experienced premature failure of the exhaust system on the Smax and is there any comeback from Ford on this?

Cheers

[tunne1rat]

Has any one else experienced premature failure of the exhaust system on the Smax and is there any comeback from Ford on this?

Cheers

This is quite rare and I know of only one recent case where the exhaust failed on a 4 year old s-max - but this could be just down to general wear and tear.

[All new Shmoo]

This is quite rare and I know of only one recent case where the exhaust failed on a 4 year old s-max - but this could be just down to general wear and tear.

I can't rule out wear and tear as an explanation but I have spoken to 2 independent mechanics who were very surprised that a 3 year old modern car needed a new exhaust at 63k miles. I usually travel 2500 miles per month - typical journey length is 150 - 250 miles.

I had always assumed that long distance driving resulted in better exhaust longevity because the system gets hot during travel and any excess exhaust water left in the system at the end of the trip gets evaporated off quickly. In contrast, short trips tend to leave water from the exhaust emissions in the pipe - the pipe isn't hot enough to evaporate off the residue which results in accelerated degradation of the exhaust. This would suggest to me that I should have expected better than average lifespan on the exhaust?

Assuming there was a fault with my original exhaust does anybody know how I would go about raising this with Ford? The local dealer isn't interested - "computer says no - exhaust is only covered for 1 year from new" was pretty much all they had to say about it.

Who knows? - the Smax is still a relatively new car so maybe this problem will start to manifest itself more regularly as more cars exceed 60k miles... If I raise this with Ford now perhaps the Smax community as a whole will benefit if a fault is found.

BTW when the garage ordered the new exhaust for me there was some confusion over what the current released parts were - it seems that Ford are in the process of changing the exhaust design/supplier - I wonder why?

[All new Shmoo]

I can't rule out wear and tear as an explanation but I have spoken to 2 independent mechanics who were very surprised that a 3 year old modern car needed a new exhaust at 63k miles. I usually travel 2500 miles per month - typical journey length is 150 - 250 miles.

I had always assumed that long distance driving resulted in better exhaust longevity because the system gets hot during travel and any excess exhaust water left in the system at the end of the trip gets evaporated off quickly. In contrast, short trips tend to leave water from the exhaust emissions in the pipe - the pipe isn't hot enough to evaporate off the residue which results in accelerated degradation of the exhaust. This would suggest to me that I should have expected better than average lifespan on the exhaust?

Assuming there was a fault with my original exhaust does anybody know how I would go about raising this with Ford? The local dealer isn't interested - "computer says no - exhaust is only covered for 1 year from new" was pretty much all they had to say about it.

Who knows? - the Smax is still a relatively new car so maybe this problem will start to manifest itself more regularly as more cars exceed 60k miles... If I raise this with Ford now perhaps the Smax community as a whole will benefit if a fault is found.

BTW when the garage ordered the new exhaust for me there was some confusion over what the current released parts were - it seems that Ford are in the process of changing the exhaust design/supplier - I wonder why?

Here are some pictures of the exhaust -

Attached Thumbnails

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[artscot79]

I can't rule out wear and tear as an explanation but I have spoken to 2 independent mechanics who were very surprised that a 3 year old modern car needed a new exhaust at 63k miles. I usually travel 2500 miles per month - typical journey length is 150 - 250 miles.

I had always assumed that long distance driving resulted in better exhaust longevity because the system gets hot during travel and any excess exhaust water left in the system at the end of the trip gets evaporated off quickly. In contrast, short trips tend to leave water from the exhaust emissions in the pipe - the pipe isn't hot enough to evaporate off the residue which results in accelerated degradation of the exhaust. This would suggest to me that I should have expected better than average lifespan on the exhaust?

Assuming there was a fault with my original exhaust does anybody know how I would go about raising this with Ford? The local dealer isn't interested - "computer says no - exhaust is only covered for 1 year from new" was pretty much all they had to say about it.

Who knows? - the Smax is still a relatively new car so maybe this problem will start to manifest itself more regularly as more cars exceed 60k miles... If I raise this with Ford now perhaps the Smax community as a whole will benefit if a fault is found.

BTW when the garage ordered the new exhaust for me there was some confusion over what the current released parts were - it seems that Ford are in the process of changing the exhaust design/supplier - I wonder why?

it would have been worth contacting ford first they may have been aware of an issue and you may have had it replaced free or at a heavily discounted price

[All new Shmoo]

it would have been worth contacting ford first they may have been aware of an issue and you may have had it replaced free or at a heavily discounted price

I tried Ford first - I approached the delaer that sold me the car and they didn't want to know. Exhaust is only covered for 12 months from new.

[artscot79]

I tried Ford first - I approached the delaer that sold me the car and they didn't want to know. Exhaust is only covered for 12 months from new.

thats still badly corroded for its age ive seen 5yr old exhausts that diont look that bed ide be tempted to take it into ford and ask them if that looks like normal for its age

[oOoTOON_ARMYoOo]

Ok my s-max 2.0 tdci has just done 63k and the back box has fell off , it has corroded where the long pipe meets the back box and ford want about £500 for the new parts ! The car is a 2008 model

[Stoney871]

KwikFit is your best option

[wired691]

Hi, our 2.0 tdci failed at 47000 back box fell off, spoke to our garage they have seen quite a lot lately £150.00 fitted that was non genuine though sound's better now.

[137699]

Seems to be a problem with the diesel models. There have been a few instances reported recently on the smax owners club website.

[Grumb]

My '06 1.8TDCi failed the MOT this time because of perforation on the exhaust. Funny, maybe being a diesel none of us noticed it was even blowing! It's done just over 62K miles and mostly only for long distance runs (use my other car for short commuting), so still feels it failed too soon for a modern car.

Didn't want to pay the £450 quoted by the Ford dealer to replace both the Rear Silencer and the Intermediate Pipe, and had them replaced by my local independant garage for £193 all-in (still using original Ford parts!). Just show how much mark-ups dealers make.

Anyway, after seeing the failed parts closely, think I made a mistake to even use the genuine Ford part - because all the perforations on the Intermediate Pipe are where the mounting hooks are welded to the pipe and on the Rear Silencer where the pipe is welded to the Silencer! So it seems more a manufacturing defect with the welded joints having weakened the exhaust, during the process at those small section! I have uploaded some pictures and one can see otherwise both exhaust parts are otherwise in a sound state- unlike the ones on 'All new Shmoo's!

[stef123]

Welds will always corrode faster - nothing you can really do about it.

Just recently replaced an exhaust on a 2006 1.8 tdci focus in similar condition. I would say 6 years isn't too bad from an exhaust on a diesel to be fair

[gregers]

on my old mk2 galaxy tdi,my rear box was found to be hanging down by its hanger no idea how long,suffered no change in engine noise or drive.
think its a tdi thing?.

[stef123]

on my old mk2 galaxy tdi,my rear box was found to be hanging down by its hanger no idea how long,suffered no change in engine noise or drive.
think its a tdi thing?.

It's a diesel thing, diesel engines produce lots of engine noise but hardly anything from the exhaust. When my exhaust snapped on the ST I had no loss of power or noise as such just a whooshing noise from the turbo coming out the exhaust.