Pinkish/Brownish Residue on Exhaust
 

Hi all,

My friend owns a 1993 Honda Civic DX Coupe, and he has an exhaust on it.

He knows that his car has been burning a little bit of coolant lately, and just today, he noticed that his exhaust is a little bit pinkish/brownish, what does that mean? Is this a confirmation that his car is indeed burning coolant?

Thanks!

Means it's time for a car wash. What colour coolant does he have, probably ninja turtle goo green. So Yeah, very well could just be something kicked up from the ground, wash it, and watch it.

it indicates your friend is gay (pink colour) and also indicates he's down for buttsecks (brown color).

Hi BB,

You have always been one of my most respected members on TCC for many reasons - one of which is your knowledge in cars, and your willingness to share that knowledge with other members on this site.

Having said that, however, I am utterly disappointed with your response to this thread. To be honest with you BB, I was excited to see that you have provided a reply to this thread, up until opened the thread up.

I am still contend that my question is completely legitimate, and can be beneficial to other members on this site, should they ever come across a similiar situation.

As mentioned by Chris's response above, the pinkish substance might be something my friend picked up while he was on the road, and that response, at least, was worth my time reading.

I will definitely keep everyone updated if this pinkish substance is indeed an indication of an engine problem, but until then, please feel free to post what you think the problem might be here.

Thanks.

joseph, burning coolant will show signs of white smoke....

the colour you described is very odd and i can't picture it in my head to get a further diagnosis on this case, perhaps it's better if you take a pic and post it up

awww you hurt my feelings :( hahahaha j/k you should have known what to expect for a question like that. if you or your friend REALLY wanted an answer to a serious question, #1 you'd perhaps look at the exhausts of some other near-new stock cars and see that tip browning is normal. or #2 at least you'd have the decency to put up a picture of this 'pink' exhaust. and perhaps also post the color of coolant he's using, regular yellow or long life orange... either way I'd still laugh cuz it makes no difference, but it would show a certain level of 'care' about the issue.

it's a stupid question for several reasons. but who cares... it's not even your car!

i mean really... he already suspects his car of burning coolant... if he wants confirmation, looking for colors in his exhaust is the wrong place to start. maybe he should taste it too :) LOL

what's he propose to do about his pink exhaust? is he really gonna fix it? or should I just waste my time so he sleeps better at night?

he wants to know if he's losing coolant, maybe he should start with a compression and leakdown test in the combustion chamber to check his combustion chamber integrity, then he can leakdown test the cooling system. then, he would add dyes to his coolant to see if it's mixing with combustion gasses. I mean that's how you diagnose a car... not ask your friend to post something on the internet. odds are he's prolly not burning coolant but prolly pissing it out somewhere through a slow leak... possibly a worn out water pump.

as for his brownish exhaust... it's perfectly normal for an exhaust to have a brownish appearance on the inside... just like it's normal for spark plugs to have a nice rusty color. if his gayxhaust is stainless, that would prolly explain the pinkish color appearance too.

so in other words, the brown exhaust is nothing to worry about and it's totally unrelated to whatever else he thinks is going on. look at any exhaust tip on any car more than a year or two old... it's prolly nice and light brown as well.

2 in the pink and 1 in the stink