Why is there black soot on my rear fender near the exhaust?

Anyone ever see this before?? It is happening on my 08. I have never had this happen on any vehicle I have owned.

 

Are you burning oil?

 

Did you drive through any water recently? I drove through some deep water recently and it splashed big spots of black soot on my back bumper.

Ever drive a turbo car w/ straight through exhaust and no cat? ...you get lots of black soot I had to clean the back bumper of my turbo honda accord about 2-3 times a week..especially when I got pedal happy and kept it in boost.

My buddy used to have a sonic yellow subaru WRX w/ Blitz Nurspec exhaust and he used to go to car washes that the baseball teams & cheerleaders would do and pay them to try to get the soot off his bumper...they never could lol it was permanently stained on there. It was funny to watch them scrub though.

 

Its from the DIESEL POWER.

 

Or, it could be that you're running a Nissan...

 

This is a common problem w/ the 4.0. Mine does the same thing.

 

Sounds like you're running rich. Odd that it is on the fender though. The tailpipe isn't even close is it?

 

I have some as well but I thinks its just common from the exhaust fumes.

 

Yeah, I have this as well...it's a pain to clean off.

 

This is completely normal. Manufacturers tune the engine to run on the rich side at wide open throttle. Ideal air to fuel ratio for a naturally aspirated gasoline engine is 13.1 at wide open throttle. Stock naturally aspirated engines run rich from the factory, because its more safe for the engine. I have seen air to fuel ratio anywhere from 10.5 to 12 at wide open throttle on stock engines. When engine runs rich it will produce black soot in the exhaust and on the tip of the exhaust which sometimes transfers to the body of the vehicle depending on the position of the exhaust tip.

 

cut the pipe off at the last exhaust hanger, problem solved. have not had a problem with mine since i cut it off about 3 years ago. i think its because toyota runs them rich from the factory to make the motor last longer. fuel milage isn't as good this way but the motor likes it.

 

I get that too. Pain in the ass!

 

Completely normal, every car I've had has done it to some extent

 

Thanks,

Glad to see its not a big deal.

 

it's because you're from Sudbury! hahaha, j/k

Are you doing any heavy towing? I know when I towed my firebird from Victoria to Kitchener, I had black exhaust soot all over the boxside, etc...

 

Has anyone asked a dealer about this issue? It seems to me that in this day and age of ultra efficient vehicles and smog control a rich running engine wouldn't fly with the EPA. The car and truck engines in the US are running so lean there isn't a spec of soot on the pipe and they run hot as hell. I think I'm going to pull a plug to see if it is fouled. If it is then there is a problem.

Paul

 

Used to have that all the time. The solution is to dump the exhaust after it clears the rear axle. Truck will look nicer and stay cleaner. Exhaust tone stays the same.

 

The thing about running rich is not the soot on the fender but the fact that it could toast the CAT and lead to excessive carbon build up internally. Both of these issues will lead to power lose. A lot of times it is just a bad vacuum line or some other air leak. I'm still going to pull a plug and see what's up

 

I agree with the sluggish part. I while ago I started a thread on this website asking why people thought why their Taco was better than my NISMO. Many people wrote in saying that their Toyota's were way faster, well, now I have a Taco and there is no way it is even close to my Frontier…I wonder if this is why?

 

My clear coat at this same location is becoming screwed up from the exhaust heat. I bought the stock Valor exhaust tip and put it on hoping it would solve the problem, it did not. I try to keep it waxed but it's not helping. I also have an '08.