Potruding exhaust question

[onomatopoeia]

One of my cars has the silencer mounted across the back of the car. The main reason is to increase the size of silencer that can be fitted to get the noise level down.

Consequently there is nothing (except common sense) to stop people walking into it and burning themselves, just like with the silencer on the side of many Seven-esque vehicles.

I have this nagging feeling that I should be covering it with something to prevent this, am I obliged by MOT / C&U regs to do so? (the car is 40 years old). If so, would thermal wrap do the trick?

[kambites]

I was under the impression that the bumper had to be the rear-most point on the car? Not sure what year that's true from, though, because obviously some really old cars have no bumpers.

[RicksAlfas]

Can you not fit a Cobra/Seven style shield over it?

[mr_fibuli]

Don't think it matters for the MOT. Seven type cars need a heat shield to pass the SVA test - perforated metal bolted over the silencer, but this is usually removed as soon as the SVA is passed.

Edited by mr_fibuli on Wednesday 29th July 12:40

[R11ysf]

Don't know for sure but beetle based buggies have exhaust sticking out the back of the vehicle


I was under the impression they needed to have a guard round them though

[GC8]

I recently MOTd a Porsche 944 on which the rear bumper was missing. This left the tip of the exhaust tailpipe protruding by several inches; and it was not mentioned, even as an advisory. Im relatively confident that the vehicle would have failed had this option been open to the tester, as the little ginger tt went out of his way, after I asked him get out and use a seat cover.

To put this in context, he spent five minutes examining the seat belts(!) and I caught the little bks hacking at the sills with the metal handle of the testing hammer. VOSA will be speaking to him soon, as Ive complained; but as you can see, the tester did everything that he could to fail the car, so I believe that the vehicle will pass with an exposed silencer. It wouldnt pass an SVA / IVA of course; and a bored or over-zealous police officer might take issue with it too.....

[Jalopnik]

Take it that this is on the Chamois? As has already been said if it's behind the bumper then you're covered.

[pembo]

I was pulled over in my charity joke car the other week (got a prohibition notice for bonnet pins but thats another story) so I asked the officer to go round the whole car and check everything that they might possibly be able to get me for in the future.

The only other thing he could find was the exhaust that sticks out by about 4" he said that if a person touched it they could burn themselves but that MOT stations don't normally bother about them. However, if a member of plod is having a bad day they can give you a prohibition notice for the car being in a 'dangerous state' which will mean that the car will not be allowed to be moved from the spot where it is stopped until the offending part is changed. It then has to be taken for a pre-arranged MOT and once it has been passed you have to take the MOT certificate and notice to the local station to get the prohibition to be removed. If they are feeling really angry that day you could also end up with 3 points and a £60 fine but I was lucky.

It's a ballache and I'm glad they pulled me over in the work car park in a car I don't need to use because I've just left it here for 3 weeks

[anonymous-user]

pembo said:

I was pulled over in my charity joke car the other week (got a prohibition notice for bonnet pins but thats another story) so I asked the officer to go round the whole car and check everything that they might possibly be able to get me for in the future.

The only other thing he could find was the exhaust that sticks out by about 4" he said that if a person touched it they could burn themselves but that MOT stations don't normally bother about them. However, if a member of plod is having a bad day they can give you a prohibition notice for the car being in a 'dangerous state' which will mean that the car will not be allowed to be moved from the spot where it is stopped until the offending part is changed. It then has to be taken for a pre-arranged MOT and once it has been passed you have to take the MOT certificate and notice to the local station to get the prohibition to be removed. If they are feeling really angry that day you could also end up with 3 points and a £60 fine but I was lucky.

It's a ballache and I'm glad they pulled me over in the work car park in a car I don't need to use because I've just left it here for 3 weeks

Actually I had a prohibition put on my car many moons ago by an over-zealous copper (it was for a faulty headlamp!). You can drive a car with a prohibition notice but only home/to an MOT station.

[pembo]

St John Smythe said:

pembo said:

I was pulled over in my charity joke car the other week (got a prohibition notice for bonnet pins but thats another story) so I asked the officer to go round the whole car and check everything that they might possibly be able to get me for in the future.

The only other thing he could find was the exhaust that sticks out by about 4" he said that if a person touched it they could burn themselves but that MOT stations don't normally bother about them. However, if a member of plod is having a bad day they can give you a prohibition notice for the car being in a 'dangerous state' which will mean that the car will not be allowed to be moved from the spot where it is stopped until the offending part is changed. It then has to be taken for a pre-arranged MOT and once it has been passed you have to take the MOT certificate and notice to the local station to get the prohibition to be removed. If they are feeling really angry that day you could also end up with 3 points and a £60 fine but I was lucky.

It's a ballache and I'm glad they pulled me over in the work car park in a car I don't need to use because I've just left it here for 3 weeks

Actually I had a prohibition put on my car many moons ago by an over-zealous copper (it was for a faulty headlamp!). You can drive a car with a prohibition notice but only home/to an MOT station.

These guys said it had to stay in the tescos car park until an MOT was booked but after explaining that it made more sense to let me have it somewhere sensible they decided to 'escort' me to my work before giving me the notice but it can't be driven home, your only movement options (according to the form in front of me) are:
-on a trailer
-for a 3 mile trial after repair
-during the MOT test
-to a pre-arranged MOT
-to the police station after the MOT

[RicksAlfas]

Let's just hope they don't walk behind a diesel that's just been regenerating it's DPF.
The tailpipes are unbelievably hot! Smells like your clutch is going too...

[Antony Moxey]

When my Seven was SVA'd as long as there were no sharp edges an exposed exhaust was fine, from the header pipes to the end pipe. Besides, if a motorbike can get away with exposed exhausts, why not a car?

[tim2100]

Antony Moxey said:

When my Seven was SVA'd as long as there were no sharp edges an exposed exhaust was fine, from the header pipes to the end pipe. Besides, if a motorbike can get away with exposed exhausts, why not a car?

On a bike they are not the rear most item on the vehicle

[darrenw]

kambites said:

I was under the impression that the bumper had to be the rear-most point on the car? Not sure what year that's true from, though, because obviously some really old cars have no bumpers.

What about tow bars?

[Accelebrate]

As mentioned before sevens happily pass MOT's without the SVA heat shield fitted, just remember to remind passengers before they get out!

The exhaust on the MINI Cooper S protrudes quite a distance from the car, it's also central so perfectly positioned to catch people as they're unloading from the boot. There have been quite a few reports of people burning themselves but the design remains the same.

[s3fella]

I'm guessing this is on the imp?

[NiceCupOfTea]

pics please Onomatopoeia!

[onomatopoeia]

This is what it currently looks like (test assembly only so far).



The bumper wont go back on like this, I'd have to construct some sort of brackets to hang it about 6" further away from the car. In any case I'm going to shorten the pipe and put a longer silencer (for noise reasons, one small silencer is not enough, one big one is) on which will completely obscure the n/s bumper mounting bolt. If I fitted the long silencer with the current pipe length it would overhang the side of the car as well and knock pedestrians over when I pass them!