Club 80-90 Forums

Hoping someone can bear with the ignorance of a first-timer and give me some advice to keep my much loved campervan on the road... my silencer has packed in and my local exhaust-chain has quoted me £1000 for replacing the exhaust system (before labour&VAT!)
I contacted a local garage that does a lot of VW work about an estimate but they aren't even returning my calls! I know exhausts are available on the internet but it seems incredibly likely I will buy the wrong thing - any idea about how straightforward that would be? Or is over a grand a fair price for an exhaust?
I have a 1985 (B-reg) 1915CC, water-cooled, petrol van.
Advice, or even commiseration, appreciated!

You could try here

or

here

for stockists

Could be the garage doesn't want the job, and when you are talking about old vans and rusted bolts its not a job I would look for. When I got an exhaust put on mine 2 years ago it cost me about 300 for the garage to do the job, I supplied the exhaust.
GSF I've found are helpful about getting the right part, as long as your van isn't modified and faffed about with then the parts could be a whole range of anything.

Thank you both very much - am following up both links and at the least will be armed with knowledge when I go to my (third) garage!
Cheers

Have had a development - another garage can't see anything wrong with exhaust, says vehicle is misfiring and running too fast (I'm just nodding wisely by this point as I don't know what he means).
Has anyone had experience of this, and what a repair might involve?
Going to a third (hopefully final!) garage on Monday, so would be great to go in armed with some knowledge...

Cheers

Our vans are noisier than modern vans..unless you're a complete perfectionist, then dg's can have acceptable noise levels
Tickover speed is around 950 rpm
and a misfire will make the engine shake a lot! the occasional misfire will make the engine rock slightly... but so would a mixture problem.
May I suggest you have a plugs, oil and filter change, air filter. a basic service...(you can do this yourself with some confidence and the Wiki), then have a tune up from any tuner upper...before you start puchasing expensive parts

Whereabouts in Scotland are you?

Quite a few people travel a distance to get work done here. One of very few garages and T25 specialists I'd actually trust with my vehicle.

Even better. I'll try out the service option first.
In Edinburgh but Shotts is reachable if the need arises.
Knowing where/who to trust is definitely a big deal. Also fed up with garages tutting when I tell them how old it is ("Yes, I did say the reg was B, not P or V"!)
Thanks again

Cate's was a good call, they were great with my Caulifornian Westy - full exhaust £270 and local garage for local people, fitting for around the same. So a grand seems mightily expensive - but then I'm a tight Yorkshireman