Is the OEM exhaust stainless ?

[RavenTai]

here is an exerp from the new car features manual:

5. Exhaust Pipe
# The exhaust pipes are made of stainless steel.
# The catalytic converters are monolithic type three–way catalytic converters.
# Large mufflers (main and sub) effectively reduce noise and exhaust pressure form the large capacity engine.

looking at my exhaust it has some surface rust but is still shinny in places, not as much rust as I would expect out of 8 year old steel but more rust than I would expect from stainless in that time, maybe it is one of the less resistant stainless aloys?

A magnet sticks to it but not strongly

what is it?

Maybe a easier question to answer is how long will it last in a non salt area like GA?

 

[cruiserdan]

It ia a magnetic stainless as opposed to "aircraft grade" stainless that is non magnetic. It does get a surface patina but is supposed to be rust resistant. I am not a metalurgist so I can't give you a better explanation than that. :-\

 

[RavenTai]

Thanks C-dan, I am no metallurgist either so that is a good enough answer for me

 

[krich97]

I have stainless exhaust on another vehicle and it does rust a little. You can clean it off but there really isn't any protectant you can put on it that I am aware of - it gets too hot and is exposed to lots o' road grime. I think the magnetism and corrosion resistance is a function of how much nickle or other alloys are mixed with the steel - more corrosion resistance usually goes with less strength (softer material) and is more expensive.

 

[e9999]

hum...
my 97 has a pretty good amount of surface rust on the e-pipe... and it's a california truck. Unless it's all red dirt of course...
Any Toy stamps on the pipes?
E

 

[RavenTai]

[quote author=e9999 link=board=2;threadid=14385;start=msg134731#msg134731 date=1081386169]
Any Toy stamps on the pipes?
E[/quote]


not that I have seen, mine has a fair bit of surface rust also, what krich97 says makes sense, Exhaust is exposed to a lot of corrosive elements, a mediocre stainless would rust under these conditions

 

[Riley]

I've been real happy with the exhaust on 1992 Camry. I have about 300K km (or 180K miles) on my car and the exhaust is still the original.

In my area they use salt on the roads so I'm real pleased with the stainless exhaust systems that Toyota uses.

Riley