Hi all , can i ask any advice re getting new exhaust for ford focus 1.6  2007

is it a one piece exhaust, or 3 parts, and what am i likely to pay for complete exhaust.  Any good places to go?  And is it worth changing just part of it, if its the silencer , or best to go for whole exhaust. Thanks, terry

its three parts cost depends where you buy it from 🙂

1 hour ago, Terry morris said:

is it a one piece exhaust, or 3 parts,

If it is still the original factory fitted exhaust then it will be a one piece. All replacement exhausts consist of 3 sections.

Any general replacement exhaust centre will be able to offer you a basic replacement or a higher quality one. The garages are all generally as good, or as bad as each other. 

Thanks unofix.  She definitely has a one piece on there. So any replacement, would always be a 3 piece?

national tyres quoted about £500 for a complete exhaust without the cat. Which is stupidly high!  Any ideas what would be an average quote for the whole exhaust?  Terry

Have you seen the damage yourself?  If it just needs a small patch then an indy garage might be able to weld it cheaply.  Tyre chains are often not allowed to weld so will just fit complete new parts.

The exhaust was fitted at the factory before the rear suspension.  So any replacement has to come in separate parts to save removing the rear subframe.

The one piece can only be fitted at the factory before things like the rear axle/crossbeam is fitted. It just wouldn't be feasible to try and fit a replacement one piece system and so they are not available as a spare.

In general all replacement exhausts will consist of 3 parts to allow for easy fitting. Some exhaust manufactures may possibly make a 2 part system but that would not be common.

The price of the replacement will fall between £400 and £500 for a reasonable quality (not including the cat). Get a quote from Kwik Fit, they will mostly offer the budget replacement, but often do have the option of a better quality exhaust.

Thanks unofix and tomsfocus, for answering.  I thought about welding, but its where the pipe meets up at the rear silencer, right on the seam where the 2 join up. Dont know if thats do-able. And then you could argue that having had it welded, the exhaust could fail somewhere else, further along!  We had a quote from f1 autocentres, for all 3 pieces fitted, all in for £352.   Which nowadays isnt bad i suppose.  Still a lot of money though. Terry

If it's a seam around a pipe, it's not likely to be weldable in situ.  By the time it's been removed for welding, you might as well just fit new parts. 

It's worth noting that aftermarket parts won't be of the same quality, so you can't expect them to last as long as the originals.  £350 sounds like a reasonable price.  Old cars never get cheaper to maintain unfortunately.

Thanks tom

Is the break on the rear silencer?  If so just replace the rear silencer. The old pipe will need sawing in just the right place. I have welded a few broken pipes on cars where this happened but it’s not easy for access. I was using mig.  Might be easier with oxy-acetylene with car up high on ramp.  Needs an old school garage where an old bloke there is happy to repair stuff instead of replacing.  When I have done such repairs I have also welded a couple of strengthening bits of metal at an angle joined to pipe about 3 inches from where it goes into silencer with other end welded to the rim of the silencer box. There must be someone who could do this for you easily but finding such people isn’t always easy. Of course it does depend if rest of exhaust is on its last legs. But I have often found that repairing one break is often the only weak point and it’s lasts a long time after that.