Saxo Exhaust Rattle/Clutch on the way out

[450Nick]

Hi all,

A friend of mine has a 1L Saxo and it has developed a nasty rattle from the exhaust. Upon jacking it up and having a good poke around the underside it looks to me like the baffle plates have come loose in the exhaust midbox and are rattling around inside.

First off, is this a common fault at all? Secondly, what sort of job is she looking at to have it replaced? So far as I can see, you can't just replace the midbox on its own as it looks like the whole rear section of the exhaust from the cat back needs to come out. Is it possible to cut the box open, reweld and shut it back up again or is it going to be easier/cheaper to just replace the box/exhaust rear section?

Thanks in advance.

Oh and while I'm at it, moving it around the drive it felt like the clutch was on the way out as the bite point feels very high to me and I thought I heard it squeek ever so slightly when pulling off which to me sounds like its starting to slip. The car's only done 95k miles so I wouldn't have thought it would go so soon but perhaps she's been riding the clutch. What sort of job would replacing this be and does anyone know a rough cost?

I'm not too familiar with Saxos so I've no idea of the costs involved!

[ska_wars]

Baffles falling out is normally one of two types of exhaust failure. either that or it rusting and breaking.

The centre section (or mid box) is a seperate part. Kwik fit or any exhaust place would be able to do it for not much money at all. Or, if you're handy with a spanner its an easy job. Exhaust can be bought from any motor factor. Or euro car parts, GSF etc. Its not worth trying to repair it as boxes are so cheap to replace (£30-50). The back box may need doing as well. The baffles from the centre section may of worked their way down the exhaust and be partially blocking the back box.

Clutch is another relatively straightforward job. For the time being you can probably just adjust it. On the right hand side of the rocker cover (may have to remove some induction pipes) is a cable that goes through and arm in the top of the gearbox. This is the clutch release lever. Tighten up the nut (8 or 10mm spanner iirc) on the end of the cable. This should make the clutch bite a bit lower.

The clutch itself isn't hard to change but it involves alot of other stuff taking off/aprt to get to it. You're looking around £40-80 for the part and another £100-150 fitting? I'd say a fair price is between £200 and £300. Get the release bearing changed too. Most but not all clutch kits come with this. Just future proofs the job.

Ring round and get a few quotes. Then go to the cheapest or best rated :)

[450Nick]

Great, thanks very much for the info. The clutch adjuster sounds good, I'm sure it's not been serviced for a while so the adjuster might just sort it.

I've run Unipart and they can get center boxes next day so I'll get one ordered up later on. I clearly didn't look carefully enough when looking at the connections! Is it just a slide over fit with a U-bolt exhaust clamp or something else?

[ska_wars]

Yea, it should just be a clamp at either end of the box. Soak them in wd40 if they don't come undone at first.