Exhaust fitting and banging

[besidethewye]

Hi there

I recently bought a 1995 Elan S2. It's got a stainless exhaust on it - Peco I think but I do not have the details.

Driving along I got the odd painful noise from underneath which sounded like bottoming out (and seemed most often to happen when the suspension would all be under compression - dips etc) - but I don't think it is. More likely seems to be exhaust hitting things.

The rear valence has been modified at some point to accommodate the rear box (a bit cut off the nearside) and the box is close to the lower part (offside).

I spent an hour bending mounting arms and refitting the last hanger the other day - this succeeded in changing when I get the noises but not getting rid of them. All the mounts have rubbers on them and all look pretty standard. Can't see that anything's that far out from where it would have been put - wondering whether the bigger pipe makes successful fitting a more challenging job.

It looks to me as if the system might fit better if it was about an inch shorter so that there was a bit more clearance in the valence. But I am not certain that this is the only place that things get hit.

Any advice or previous experience (sorry I can't give you the exact type of pipe set up)? My next thought was to take it all off and attempt to refit with new rubbers and seeing if I can get a better line.

Cheers

Patrick

[Monty]

I`ve got a Peco, when it was 1st fitted i had a similar problem and it turned out that the rear of the rear silencer was hitting the lower wishbone, infact it damaged the rubber on the anti-rollbar I had to loosen the clamps on the middle and rear section to pull the rear box back to miss the wishbone.

[besidethewye]

Thanks Monty - I'll have a look and see if that's happening here. By the looks of it the box is pretty far back - I assume that's why it's fouling the bodywork....

Cheers

[John_W]

I agree with Monty. Check that the exhaust doesn't foul suspension components at any point of the suspension travel.

I had a local exhaust place make up my custom system for me which clonked horribly after they first fitted it. I jacked up the car to have a look - seemed OK; then I tried a scissor jack to move the suspension up to simulate driving and immediately saw that the wishbone hit the silencer on compression. I took it back to the clots and they fixed it.

The only lasting effect is that the tail-pipe has knocked some paint off the cut-out in the rear valance (on the near-side) because when I went over bumps the wishbone forced the silencer left and upwards to allow the tailpipe to hit the bodywork.

John

PS: I suppose you know that if you lift the boot carpet you can get at the rear mounting bracket which allows some adjustment.

[besidethewye]

Sure enough the wishbone shows signs of hitting the exhaust box. I'll see how much movement there is to sort it out.

Thanks

[tte200]

I`ve got a Peco, when it was 1st fitted i had a similar problem and it turned out that the rear of the rear silencer was hitting the lower wishbone, infact it damaged the rubber on the anti-rollbar I had to loosen the clamps on the middle and rear section to pull the rear box back to miss the wishbone.

I agree with Monty, as I have a Peco which was hitting the lower wishbone and the clamp on the rear silencer was also catching something under the car. Took it back to Peco and they have sorted it all out - realigned silencer and altered the bracket.