This may get confusing but please bare with me.
Have owned my Clio for about two and a half years now. When I got it there was already an aftermarket exhaust fitted. Unsure of the make but looks decent quality and in good condition.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed a slight rattle from the rear end so got under the car to investigate and discovered that the metal brace between the tail pipes, just behind the bumper, had rusted through at the point it was welded to one of the pipes. The brace wasn't attached to anything else so appears purely for keeping the tail pipes the correct distance apart. There was no rusting at all on the pipes themselves. As the brace was no longer attached on one end I removed it and hey presto no more rattle.
All good but when walking up the drive today I noticed that the O/S tail pipe has now moved in a few millimetres and no longer sits in the middle of the cut out. It's not hitting the bumper at all but its enough out of line to drive me mental.
At the moment my cunning plan is to grab a scissor jack and after bracing the N/S pipe use the jack to push the O/S pipe over a bit thus opening up the gap between them and fingers crossed returning the offending pipe back to the middle of the cut out.
My worry is that moving the pipe over in this fashion may cause either the weld between tail pipe and back box to crack or just put a nasty dent in one or both tail pipes.
Thoughts or suggestions please.
And no I can't just leave it. :rasp:
Have owned my Clio for about two and a half years now. When I got it there was already an aftermarket exhaust fitted. Unsure of the make but looks decent quality and in good condition.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed a slight rattle from the rear end so got under the car to investigate and discovered that the metal brace between the tail pipes, just behind the bumper, had rusted through at the point it was welded to one of the pipes. The brace wasn't attached to anything else so appears purely for keeping the tail pipes the correct distance apart. There was no rusting at all on the pipes themselves. As the brace was no longer attached on one end I removed it and hey presto no more rattle.
All good but when walking up the drive today I noticed that the O/S tail pipe has now moved in a few millimetres and no longer sits in the middle of the cut out. It's not hitting the bumper at all but its enough out of line to drive me mental.
At the moment my cunning plan is to grab a scissor jack and after bracing the N/S pipe use the jack to push the O/S pipe over a bit thus opening up the gap between them and fingers crossed returning the offending pipe back to the middle of the cut out.
My worry is that moving the pipe over in this fashion may cause either the weld between tail pipe and back box to crack or just put a nasty dent in one or both tail pipes.
Thoughts or suggestions please.
And no I can't just leave it. :rasp:
