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Hi Jugular,

27d - I took the first 3 words to be the definition, but I see your point.

Also,I haven't got to the endgame yet so can't bring part of that, is there is any, into the decision.

Jugular
I read the last word as the definition.

I think 27d is a dreadful clue, for the obvious reason. I can’t understand the editor letting it through. But when there is a phrase like “sounds like exhaust” in it I think it’s perverse not to read that as the homophone indicator, so I agree with Brendan that the definition must be “part of car”.

A search of225 for "sounds like" found this clue from Feb 16 Guardian:

LECTOR Reader in church sounds like Hannibal? (6)
Homophone of Hannibal Lecter

In that case the "O or E" was a checked letter, so the crossers would have resolved it, but the suggestion here is that in "X sounds like Y", X is the definition. That was my initial thought when solving/

Personally I didn't find 27d at all confusing. To me there's a clear directionality of the central "sounds like" portion that makes the first part the definition. It's not like other (past tense) soundalike indicators where placing it centrally can be read in either direction, e.g. "X announced Y" can be read as either "{hom announced} {def}" or "{def} {announced hom}" -- but in my view the present tense "X sounds like Y" can only really be reasonably read as "{def} {sounds like hom}" and not "{hom sounds like} {def}", which is a rather odd construction.

Sorry about my earlier reply. Thought we were discussing 28 D. Mea culpa maxima.

Still can’t associate 26 with the theme, any hints appreciated.

@Bobfos

If you know anyone who lives there, give them a call...

Bobfos - do you have the hyphenated word that is the theme?

Thanks all for your thoughts on 27d