Ah, the joys of a 'simple' fix......

the williams started blowing badly from the exhuast at engine end last wednesday night, so i limped it back and forth to work for last 2 days of the week and booked it in saturday morning at the garage for them to have a nosey at it, couldnt be arsed doing it myself.

n saturday i'm informed the downpipe has started to split just below the join to manifold, so i raise mr mat brown and get a new mani and d/p to be recieved next week. later that day matt_valver pops down to lay a deposit on the willy wheels he's buying, and at same time a random lass in a fiesta pulls up and asks if the willy is mine. erm yes love, why? turns out her fella has a willy 2 he's breakin, shes pissed off its still on drive and he's not done out with it yet. so quick phonecall to him after she's left and i've sorted a downpipe for 20 quid, awesome! ring mat, cancel post order and leave it all till this morning.

on the way to chesterfield to pick up the downpipe, theres a crack and a clang and then the blow is like savage loud, so limp to this lads place and sort the transaction, limp home and crack on with fitting new pipe

new pipe waiting to go on

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00032.jpg

undo one sprung bolt to old downpipe, and then try to crack the one nearest the wheel, no socket fits it and its seized solid, so have to hammer a socket on and go for it........

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00034.jpg

yep u guessed it, snapped the ****in stud in the manifold :evil:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00035.jpg

so manifold has to come off aswell, same issue with half the bolts on that aswell, seized and have to hammer sockets on etc etc, cue lots of swearing and cups of tea and the loss of my 13mm socket, buggered if i know where that ended up :roll:

finally get the bugger off

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00036.jpg

and call up the lad in chessie again, he has to strip mani of the willy he's breaking and ferry it down to cromford for me, top bloke!

the work area as i was waiting

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00037.jpg

so a 4 bolt ten minute downpipe swap turned into an all day **** about leaving me thoroughly pissed off and tired! however least i didnt have to pay a garage in the end and now its all runnin fine again fingers crossed! just why is it never simple with these cars? :twisted:

Coops

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00031.jpg

jesus! no wonder it was bloein lmao

blowin*

Top bombing coops :D

and to think you was doing all that while I was tucked up in a nice warm bed all day :lol:

weld it back up......spare. ;)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...2/DSC00032.jpg

You know the extra curve at the bottom of the pipe is that a shield to stop it from getting damaged or is it the actual side of the downpipe?

Which bit do you mean mate? The heatshield or the bend near the lambda?

Coops, seems the story of our lives dude. Those bastard bolts took me ages to get off on the valver, and two threaded on the way out of the head, and I had to get the head machined and rethreaded.

Just to make you happy, I scratched one of my gold alloys doing my suspension and brakes today, the bulbs behind the dash blew, plus the AVO drivers side strut I have been really excited about fitting for weeks decided to go weird on me and the moment I touched the adjuster, it snapped off.

Handles great though!

well if your saying theres a heatsield on that picture then you've answered my question :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daz.

well if your saying theres a heatsield on that picture then you've answered my question :D

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Ahh yea that metal coat thing is some kind of protector/heat shield. It's thin metal, and often vobrates annoyingly if it loses it's little screw's. One appears missing on one above so I suggest you do it up Coops with another nut and bolt or use one off the duff d/p to secure.

Vobrate? I mean 'vibrate'. The keys on my keyboard have worn out, damn G15 Logitech keys...

:lol:

Will everyone hate me when I say I've had none of these problems with mine? 8-[

last time I looked at mine it had a bit of a hole in it you see - if its only the shield I'll live :D

ai, i need to pop extra bolt in the sheild, but old one had one missing n all and was okay, so be reet 8)

Ahh, thats fine then, my old valver one vibrated at certain rev ranges.

just rip it off......less weight ;)

These clios must plan these things - mine snapped in EXACTLY the same place yesterday!

Knew it had a blow that was getting slightly worse - didn't look at it and assumed it was from the cat after the engine swap. I was literally on the way to my unit to have a look and sort it out. Then all of a sudden heard a bang and the car sounded like a tractor. Damn thing started scraping on the floor.

An hour later, after a mate came to my aid with some cable ties, got it back to my unit.

Took me about 3 1/2 hours to swap it all - luckily had the complete valver setup. Gonna get the willy downpipe welded up though - should be ok then. Fair play i well saw my arse with it! Can't believe yours looks absolutely identical. Must be a common problem?

never heard of it before mate, so a bit weird, ususal spot is the manifold where the 4 tubular branches meet, it splits there.

done this on 1 of mine...racing a teggy out of york a few years ago...common prob. not as common as where the 4 join tho admittedly.