New exhaust smell?

Tracked · Nov 12, 2023

Just installed the Thermal 3" exhaust a week ago and have driven about 200 miles on it so far. There's a very strong burning plastic sort of smell coming from the exhaust tips when I turn the vehicle off, but I don't notice any smells while driving with the windows down.

Is this just normal burning off of manufacturing materials such as oils or lubrication they use? Has anyone else experienced this?

UNBROKEN · Nov 12, 2023

Completely normal to burn off the oils used in the mandrel bending process. If you never get it really hot, it will take a long time to burn off. If you take the car out and run it up into triple digits, you can burn it off in about five minutes.

Cblue · Nov 14, 2023

Yeah, my wife asked the same thing after I put the 3 in thermal on hers, And it did smell horrible regular driving takes forever to get rid of it. I was able to get rid of it in a a day or two. Switch to manual and go heat up the exhaust do some spirited driving and get the revs up there near redline.

Tracked · Nov 15, 2023

Yeah mine is already noticeably dissipating from when I posted a few days ago. The smell is still there but not nearly as strong.

I was probably more paranoid about it as I discovered the trans cooler leaking when installing the exhaust and the vehicle went straight to the dealer at that point, so I was worried it was still that leaking and the smell was burning trans fluid. But I just went under the vehicle yesterday to retighten the exhaust and to re-do the passenger side muffler and tips, and checked on the trans cooler to verify no leaks (there weren't any).

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New exhaust smell?

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