On Monday, the gusting wind blew a large, empty, fertiliser bag across the road in front of me, which I promptly drove over between the front wheels. Looking in the mirror, I didn't see it again, so made a mental note to check under the car when I got home.
Of course, I didn't, as the cell phone rang just as I was parking up, and I went straight back to 'work mode'.
Yesterday, as we parked up, the missus said "What's that smell?".
"Oh, fiddlesticks", or something similar, said I.
A quick gander underneath revealled a horrible sticky mess along the V70 exhaust pipe from directly under the front seats to just before the back box. Much of the plastic has shrunk on melting, which I guess will make it tricky to remove, but the bit that made me breathe a sigh of relief is that some of it has clearly burnt, thankfully without setting light to bitumen sealer.
If you ever get a bag stuck underneath, and if it happens to me again, stop and check straight away!
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That happened to me on the motorbike with a supermarket carrier bag which made a mess on the exhaust.
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Once drove over a plastic bag which arranged itself with great precision across the radiator matrix. There didn't seem to be a grill of any sort across the air scoop below the number plate.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Well, I've just tried too peel it off, largely unsuccessfully despite putting the car up on axle stands, and when cold scraping had little effect, warming the exhaust through.
The V70 exhaust appears to be stainless steel, because on this 18 month old car, it's still like new if you wipe the dirt off. The downside of this is that the bag has well and truly welded itself to the pipe, and even scraping with a new Stanley blade makes little impression. I weighed up getting some chemicals to melt the plastic, but having managed to remove the considerable area of flapping loose bits, have decided not to.
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If the smell is giving you an issue, then use emery cloth / sandpaper/ whatever. It'll mess up the shiney-ness of the exhaust, but it will get it off.
Mind you, the chemical route is probably the better one.
Presumably it occurred to you that surprisingly little petrol will frequently disolve plastic ?
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Thanks, Mark.
It occurred to me since my last post that the next time the car is used will be what should be a free-running motorway trip, so I'll see how much smell remains afterwards. The plastic should get well and truly cooked!
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I reckon to the contrary, the air passing underneath will cool the pipe more than say a blast around 30 - 40 mph back roads with lots of hard acceleration.
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You're probably right cheddar, but to do that will be a special journey whereas the trip to the airport I have to make anyway.
Will post back (next week, as I'm off to Rome) what happens!
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Well, I've just tried too peel it off, largely unsuccessfully despite putting the car up on axle stands, and when cold scraping had little effect, warming the exhaust through.
Blowtorch?
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>>Blowtorch?
I wouldn't recommend that at all. Depending on what composition the plastic is you could give youself a very nasty poisonsous gas attack!!
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Been there, done that, got the T shirt.
Pulled and scrapped and cut as much of the plastic off as possible. Whats was left was black, hard melted plastic with the consistency of coal. The hard plastic left does not burn, does not smell(after its been cooked for an hour or two), and does not seem to hold water, so it was left there for two years with no further problems. I just forgot about it.
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Hi
I assume the plastic bag has the same tolerance as chewing gum on clothing
Freeze it off
Dry ice or maybe a black fire extinguisher it will just drop off
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(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
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Freeze it off. Maybe a black fire extinguisher....
Ah, you mean CO2. European legislation says all fire extinguishers have to be red now.
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Hi
Im not going into politics but isnt everyone getting tired of all these new rules.
I would try freezing it off then peeling it slowly with a putty scraper.
Does anyone agree.
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(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
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>> Freeze it off. Maybe a black fire extinguisher.... Ah, you mean CO2. European legislation says all fire extinguishers have to be red now.
IIRC they can be red or silver.
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I don't think freezing it will work.
As has been said before, scrape off any loose bits and leave what won't shift.
As to fire extinguishers, the change to all-red/silver was unneccesary and will undoubtedly lead to deaths as people squirt water-based extinguishers onto live electrical sources.
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As to fire extinguishers, the change to all-red/silver was unneccesary and will undoubtedly lead to deaths as people squirt water-based extinguishers onto live electrical sources.
Indeed. I had no idea that colour schemes had changed, and in a fire would have looked for whatever colour extinguisher matched what I was taught at school twenty five years ago...
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Indeed. I had no idea that colour schemes had changed....
I should have known better than to post a non motoring related topic in this thread, however, details are here:-
www.bonusfire.co.uk/faq.php#11
Turning it back to motoring, the powder extinguisher I bought from LIDL recently, which resides in the boot of my car is red ;o)
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Turning it back to motoring, the powder extinguisher I bought from LIDL recently, which resides in the boot of my car is red ;o)
Ditto.
I picked up three of the larger ones so both cars and the workshop are properly equipped. Will probably pick up three more next time they crop up too so I can put a spare in Mrs ND's car*, one by the other exit from the workshop and put one in the trailer with all Mrs ND's garden machinery.
I could do with a fire blanket for the kitchen too, so if Lidl offer one, let me know!
I still have a blue powder extenguisher in my car that is due a refill/service. When it gets sent back they have to pressure test the cylinder and if it's ok it will get resprayed in red.
Clever bunch, these eurocrats....
(*L200 is currently on a boat wending it's way across the oceans to Southampton. ETA late October)
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