The Mercedes MOT didn't go entirely to plan, with a FAIL awarded on two items. The first was the other front droplink. Last year the nearside one was an advisory and got changed, this year the offside one was a fail because the boot was ripped. These are pretty cheap, and pretty easy to do so no major concern there. I picked up an 'Optimal' [sic] brand droplink from ECP today which took longer to collect than to fit. the old droplink came off with minimal struggle and the new one fitted perfectly which is handy.

What was less ideal was:

• Rear Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (6.1.2 (a))

Hmmm, whats this then? Having had a chat with the MOT guy he said that what had happened was that one of the hangers has broken off, meaning the exhaust is only attached at the front and the rear, the centre section is a bit freer than it ought to be. Because the roads of near here are so velvety* smooth* the vibration over potholes and things has caused the pipe to stress crack. Did I want them to sort the bits out or would I do it? I said I'd have a look at it, and could they see if they can get hold of the rear exhaust too?

I called up all the exhaust suppliers I knew of locally and was disappointed. Because my car is an early s203 with the old engine, it needs a specific exhaust rear section, which is out of stock. everywhere. Bother. I called the garage today and asked if they'd had any luck getting one, to which they said the same - yeah we know what we need, but no, we can't get one. Here is what we're working with

you can just about see the weld remains where the hanger used to be, the rubber is intact but its unsupported. there is a crack running around 2/3rds of the pipe where its stressed. The exhaust is OEM and likely original, its MB stamped at least. I think if I could get a bit of rebar welded on and hung on the rubber it can take the stress off the pipe, and actually close up the crack almost entirely, then run a bead of weld around it, possibly with some strips of steel plate to act like splints. the exhaust metal is surprisingly thick even after 20 years so fingers were crossed.

Options B is a nasty exhaust bandage thing, its a bit tricky because its immediately before an elbow so will be hard to seat bandage, and almost impossible to sleeve.

The following weekend we has some mixed fortunes, but lots of work undertaken.

My brother came down to see me and brought his welder, we fabricated* a new hanger for the exhaust and he welded it on, then welded up the cracked pipe so its now gastight. I'll take it back for a retest on Monday and hopefully it'll get through ok. The droplink was done and dusted in 10 minutes. I also replaced the occasionally iffy thermostat on the merc for a brand new Mercedes one

I phoned up Mercedes re the exhaust and they can get the part from Germany for £470 which is less than I expected. I'll have a think because having browsed Autotrader, Gumtree and FB Marketplace for cars <£5k within 50 miles there it literally nothing thats worth having or is materially better than what I currently have. So While £500 for a new OEM exhaust isn't ideal, by the time I've bought someone else's 15 year old car, fitted 4 half decent tyres, serviced it and fixed the niggles I'll have spent £6k. so shelling out 10% of that to fix the only bits I know need doing on my car seems almost rational doesn't it?

The issue with the exhaust was that two of the hangers had rusted off, meaning it was supported at the front by the manifold, and right at the back by the last surviving hanger on the rear silencer, but that the mid section was unsupported. Because its quite heavy, and the roads so potholed, the exhaust was able to move parallel to the road surface enough that it developed a stress crack on a bend. This meant exhaust gas was able to leak out and constituted a fail. TBF it was a fair cop.

To fix it, we made a new hanger up from from 8mm steel rebar and my brother welded it on to support the exhaust better, and then closed up the crack and welded it up again so it was gastight. So we're legal again, and it should be OK for a while yet.

The difficulty I have is that the car is a bit of an oddity. Its an early S203 so has the carried over 2.0 NASP M111 engine from the W202/201/200 and is an estate. Surprisingly few of these were made in this spec so getting an aftermarket exhaust for it is very difficult. SES and the usual suspects don't have stock, and the manufacturers they get them from have them marked as NLA. The bigger engined ones are more freely available, as are saloon model exhausts but not estates with weedy engines.

I can get the part from Merc direct for ~£470, which isn't awful, and will be OEM quality, not the tinfoil joke that a Klarius one would be. Or get something fabricated but probably not substantially cheaper. Where it has failed is on a bend so sleeving it isn't easy, and I'd really rather not drop the exhaust unless I'm replacing it.

For now, its OK but I suspect now its weakened, even with the new support bracket it may well fracture again. However, this is basically the only real issue with the car (paintwork aside!), and its not really cost me much in unexpected/non-routine maintenance so I should probably stop being a mingebag and just buy a new exhaust section for it and fit it myself. Its a big lump, being basically everything from the B-pillar backwards on the car. The one fitted is stamped with merc logos so is likely original and therefore 22 years old so its done pretty well! Plus I can't actually get anything thats even nearly as capable and reliable for less than £3k right now which somewhat justifies spending some money on this car. As I said before though, the fact it cost me £19 to buy the car means I'd be spending approx 2500% the purchase price on one part! Had I bought it for the market rate of about £2500 today for a similar car then £470 would be a bit less crazy though.