Fender Flare, Exhaust interaction trouble

The kids and I decided to wash the truck and play around with the garden hose yesterday. I live on a dirt road so the truck is rarely spotless clean, it'll usually get a rinse-a-roo at the DIY carwash but that's about it for the most part.

As I was washing behind the rear tire, where the exhaust pipe ends, I noticed staining, and bubbeling/roughness just above the tip in the plastic and painted metal.

Has anyone else had this issue? I drive a lot for work, I have nearly 30k on it and never idle longer than what a drive through would take, and even then I usually turn off the truck if they're slow. It seems really odd that I have normal clearence (I think) between exhaust and painted surface yet I'm gathering enough heat to buble paint and destroy clearcoat. I'll try to get a picture later if anyone would like to see.

Is this worthy of a trip to the dealership and a complaint?

 

You got any pics

 

mudflap is just dirty, no damage there.

 

The marks on the back of the fender flare are interesting. They suggest that either the exhaust pipe or mudflap itself are moving around a considerable amount.

If there's not a loose mount, are you driving over roads rough enough to kick the mudflap up into the exhaust, or move the exhaust up into the flare?

At any rate, if the exhaust hangers are all intact and functional, probably all that's to be done is attack that paint with some rubbing compound.

 

Havent seen this before wish I could help

 

the plastic is very rough to the touch, the paint feel dirty and is stained badly.

 

Sounds like you're pretty unhappy. So take it to the dealer and see what they say. There's a limit to what we can see from just the pic.

I had to hammer out, bondo, sand, and touch-up paint the bottom of my fender above the exhaust pipe, but that's because I was driving off rock steps in Moab, and they physically forced the exhaust tip up into the fender panel, denting it.

 

It's definitely not the mudflap. Most people I have showed it too think that I let the truck idle for a considerable amount of time and the exhaust got hot enough to muck up the paint and plastic. I rarely idle as I OP'd. I think I'm just gonna talk to the dealership and see what they have to say.

 

Being a 2011 with only 30k miles, you should just go straight to the dealer and see if they can fix things up for you.

 

annoyed and working from my phone. sorry.

 

After waiting a month for even a peep from the dealership or the toyota warranty rep I got a call today. They asked if I could meet with the rep this coming Tuesday afternoon so he could look at the truck, late notice that I unfortunately can't comply with due to a long awaited work appointment.

The dude at the dealerships suggestion was a 'chrome tip' to get the 'exhaust out further' I'm not buying this(the suggestion) or a tip. The spacing is just like every other 2nd gen I've ever seen, and beleive me after my issues I'm looking for someone with similar paint issues in this location and haven't found any.

Is there anyone else that has had an issue like this? was it resolved? should I push for duals from the factory so at least the driver side matches?(kidding)

Thanks.

 

I don't have the paint bubbling up on me but my whole panel above the exhaust is stained from the exhaust. just can't seem to get it off. It sucks because its black exhaust stain on a white truck. :/

 

that's what I've got, not really bubbled, but rough like the texture of the paint under the doors on our trucks. Mine looks like it's orange tinted but it's hard to tell on the black paint. You under warranty? I won't be for much longer if they keep dickin' around but I did initiate the claim well before the warranty expiration.

 

Update on my truck:

I had the dealership look at it, they took pictures and gave them to the warrenty guy there. He wanted to see it in person and I complied. Then he said "I submitted it to regional and the rep will be down here sometime soon and will want to look at it, I'll call you to set you up with him" He gave me 2 hours notice which didn't work with my work schedule.

After waiting for the region rep to come back into the area and being forgotten about (I had to initiate the visit again) 3 months and 5,000 miles went by but they finally decided on 'buffing it out' so my fender flair is now maybe 90% better, it's still textured a little but doesn't look burnt/dirty anymore. They have no idea what is causing the staining.

Their first guess was "You idle too much" my response was that the truck is 18months old and has 41,000 miles on it, I don't idle. I turn the truck off at the drive through and usually don't let it idle outside in the winter to thaw.

Their second guess was "You drive too much" yes, that's what they said, specifically "You drive too much on the highway"

sounds to me like they're trying to get out from really looking into the problem but i'm not falling for it.