exhaust issues

[diathermy]

Hi guys,

New to this site. Bought a williams 2 last week. Sounded fine,but on the long drive home the exhaust sounded funny. Looked and it is coming off at the junction between the manifold and down pipe....(visible from engine bay) and also, down pipe splitting a bit. Is this easily rectifiable or am i looking inot big costs?

Also had a problem on the long drive...battery light cameon and needed to jump it. starts ok now....could it be earthing issues? cant be alternator as it wouldnot start repeatedly ...or would it?

cheers for the help...want to get it fixed soon as I have not even driven it properly yet!!!

plus how much should I pay for a cam belt change?

[talkingfish]

Is it damaged on the flix-joint between the manifold and downpipe? If so you will need a new one... the downpipe you should be able to get welded up ifit's not too bad... otherwise pick up a cheap second-hand one on here - you should pay around £100 for a manifold and downpipe in good condition.

Have you checked to see if the alternator is sending charge back to the battery? If i's an earthing issue these are normally a nightmare to sort as it's trial and error...

Cambelt depends on who you take it to really - the kit is about £80 from a main dealer. Should be around 5 hours labour to install - some people suggest taking the engine out to make the job easier... shop around for quotes...

Hope this all hasn't put you off - they are great little cars and the fun will outweigh the costs of running it..!

[Wobba]

All these things are quite easy to sort, depends on how you want to play it i.e. DIY or pay someone. Paying people it can be pricey.

Sorting earths isn't that hard really, it's just knowing where to find the earth's themselves and scrubbing them up/replacing them or even making new earth points. A major one is located under the front passenger arch and links to the gearbox (looks like a flat braided wire about 1" wide) and often become damaged or corroded where they meet the chassis. Wire brush ftw.

The DP is easy to replace, only 4 nuts & bolts and though the bolts can be a bit of a pain if seized (likely). You may need a new fire ring which is like a fat gasket on the DP-manifold. Use high temp gasket sealant on the flange from the DP to CAT rather than a crap OE gasket, then leave for about 24 hours to cure.

Cambelt can be a pain if you've never done it before, but if you understand the timing system and TDC it's not that hard in car and will save you about £200 assuming you have tools. Don't do it if you have no idea about how to do it, you'll possibly destroy your valves and end up with a whopping great bill.

Where are you based?

[diathermy]

Hi wobba,

thanks for the input...just got a quote for the exhaust 450!...I need to find a used one and I will do it myself. Would like to have a go at the cam belt, but I do not want to mess it up. Only reason I want it changed as the car has no history so dont want my engine to go pop!

I am based in leeds, so any other owners from here let me know!