Exhaust Replacement, Dublin

imokyrok

Judging from the noise I'm hearing on my Citroen Picasso I think my exhaust needs work. Over the years I've found that the exhaust repair shops never deliver the necessary repairs for the 'bargain' price they advertise. My exhaust in whatever car always seems to be 'special' in some way! And of course much more expensive to fix. Any suggestions for avoiding rip offs in the North County Dublin area?

And suggestions for a car maintenance course in North Dublin or City Centre would be gratefully received - or failing that links to some gem of a video series you've come across?

visual

Your best price will probably be one of the big chains of tyre and exhaust centres
you could ask for an estimate first.

I know what you mean about every car being unusual and special so will be more expensive to repair.

Your come back is your pricing around for most competitive quality job

Esel

Ring a number of places and ask their price. Of course, you need to know what part(s) you need replaced to do that - so I suggest you visit one of them to get that info. You never know, it might be something that could be repaired (broken bracket can often be welded, for example).

Re courses - North Strand Tech used to run a good one. My info is from years ago though. Other places would be Rosmini on Grace Park Road, Colaiste Dulaigh (sp?) beside Northside SC. It would good to get a recommendation for a particular college/course. Hope someone here can help in this regard.

cerastes

Im not sure it would be economically viable to do yourself, assuming you mean a maintenance course for doing the exhaust?
The chains that do exhaust/tyre repair will be the cheapest and handiest.
As much as I dont think there is much training or experience to do the job outside brazing/welding, but Im not doing it, they have the equipment (car lifts, welding gear) and can likely source the parts at a price you cant, looking at buying items online, it wouldnt work out much better for a car I priced over what I paid.
My bigger concern was how well they did the job as they had to swing out of the exhaust to remove it from the section that had the CAT and looked like they didnt give **** and could damage an expensive part (CAT) and the exhaust manifold.
Im sure thats as much to do with the turnover they need to do to compete with each other but it doesnt make me happy, maybe ignorance is bliss.
Im sure it reasonable that certain makes/model cars are more expensive and Im hazarding a guess that Citroen might fall into that, maybe you have a knack and liking for cars that happen to meet that criteria.

Price around.

edit
A general car maintenance course isnt a bad idea, increase knowledge and confidence to do some/many tasks. That isnt a bad place to start to cut down costs if thats what you're after to do easier more regular tasks like servicing that can be pricey, rather than more specific and less frequent tasks like tyres and exhausts repair/replacement that require more specialist equipment where there are businesses competing with each other already, think thats where that saving would best be made.

imokyrok

cerastes wrote: »

Im not sure it would be economically viable to do yourself, assuming you mean a maintenance course for doing the exhaust?
The chains that do exhaust/tyre repair will be the cheapest and handiest.
As much as I dont think there is much training or experience to do the job outside brazing/welding, but Im not doing it, they have the equipment (car lifts, welding gear) and can likely source the parts at a price you cant, looking at buying items online, it wouldnt work out much better for a car I priced over what I paid.
My bigger concern was how well they did the job as they had to swing out of the exhaust to remove it from the section that had the CAT and looked like they didnt give **** and could damage an expensive part (CAT) and the exhaust manifold.
Im sure thats as much to do with the turnover they need to do to compete with each other but it doesnt make me happy, maybe ignorance is bliss.
Im sure it reasonable that certain makes/model cars are more expensive and Im hazarding a guess that Citroen might fall into that, maybe you have a knack and liking for cars that happen to meet that criteria.

Price around.

edit
A general car maintenance course isnt a bad idea, increase knowledge and confidence to do some/many tasks. That isnt a bad place to start to cut down costs if thats what you're after to do easier more regular tasks like servicing that can be pricey, rather than more specific and less frequent tasks like tyres and exhausts repair/replacement that require more specialist equipment where there are businesses competing with each other already, think thats where that saving would best be made.

Don't worry - I wasn't thinking of having a go at changing the exhaust myself! Just that I've had a few bad experiences with mechanics (eg recently being told a gear cable had been replaced and subsequently discovering it had been merely stretched) and having recently been widowed I'm feeling a bit more vulnerable to having my car ignorance exploited. A basic car maintenance course would help me to at least know how to properly maintain a car and know what to look out for when dealing with mechanics and used car sales persons. I've a feeling I'm going to need to deal with the latter sooner rather than later and I'm dreading it! My last two choices have been poor.

cerastes

A car maintenance course might be a good thing to do,
Id also suggest a haynes manual, you could pick one up at a library possibly, maybe look for your own cheap and secondhand,
Even the car's manual would be a good place to start if you have it, will have some maintenance stuff in there, like the grade of oil, the tyre pressures, possibly a drawing of the engine where you can compare whats where, checking fluids levels, topping up.