In the last few days a hole developed in the exhaust of my car, and as being young - viz under 25 - the faceless corporation I am forced to call my car insurance company wanted a kings ransom to transfer my cover to the Garage’s courtesy car.
After some ringing around I found out it was actually cheaper to Rent a car. Now there must be something about rented cars… I found myself drawn to stop at ancient monuments and admiring knitted jumpers in craft shops, perhaps Failte Ireland have patented some chemical that is sprayed in Rental cars to steer wealth American tourists in the “right” directions?
Returning to my car - as I did yesterday - the Garage said there was a hole in the Manifold, which is an area under the gear stick where the straight exhaust connects to the engine block. Thus the toxic gases, including but not limited to carbon monoxide (CO), had been expelled at a dangerous location, too close to the cabin. CO is like radiation, viz you can’t see it or smell it, and its very dangerous.
Fortunately in a cars exhaust you can smell other gases, and you can hear the loud noise, and that is what made me bring it to the Garage for a servce. But it is conceiveable that if one had hayfaver causing a blocked nose, and if one was not used to the sound of a given cars engine and exhaust that one could drive in blissful ignorance of the dangers below. The CO would make the drive sleepy, and as we all know fall asleep at the wheel could lead to a crash.
- Is in-cabin CO the cause of so many “single car accidents” in Ireland today?
- Does the NCT test CO levels inside cars when the engine is running and the windows are closed?
I have bought a CO metre with a three digit proper number display showing ppm. I’m going to keep it in my car turned on at all times. I’ll keep it supplied with 9V batteries.
In conclusion… Does you car smell?
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