Exhaust Leak Carnage (1 Viewer)

[Tentsontop]

I don't have pictures and I can only state the facts, the first being: if you own a vehicle you happen to care about do not under any circumstances agree to let your wife take it on a trip without you. My wife drove my LX to Nashville to pick up some of her tribe. The LX can seat 7ish butts. That's what she needed and it's a three hour round trip. When I got home from work she said they had to roll the windows down on the way home because the exhaust smell was killing them. "Them" being all women.

I drove it. The exhaust is loud, but no exhaust smell. There was a faint, but funky burnish smell and a small burn where the passenger rear seat contacts the floor. I order a new muffler and let it sit for the weekend since I've got other things to do. When I go to pull it into the shop tonight I noticed the right rear is low and there's a fluid leak on the ground where it was parked.

A peak under the LX's skirts showed an AHC line is leaking aft of the demon muffler, melted plastic is hanging off the axle like spiderwebs and it also looks like a wiring loom or two has been BBQ'd. I had no idea a hole in an exhaust could do so much damage. I knew the muffler was on it's way out, but could not have imagined it would try to take the entire vehicle with it. Live and learn!

 

[Africaster]

You mean of course “if you own a vehicle you happen to care about, do not under any circumstances delay preventative maintenance or repairs to items (on it's way out) that control the flow of poisonous gasses under pressure and intense heat”

 

[abuck99]

If you let your wife drive your ride- better off making sure it’s safe to drive.

 

[MongooseGA]

If you let your wife drive your ride- better off making sure it’s safe to drive.

Concur. My fiancee is welcome to drive pretty much all of my cars but I only care for her to drive whatever doesn't have some kind of "story" at the time. The LX is almost always safe, but some of the old Benzes have some quirks that I just don't need to explain to her and she doesn't care to have to be conscious of.

But to the OP, sounds like it wasn't necessarily your wife that caused the issue.

 

[04UZJ100]

Like I tell my wife, I can get a new wife, I can’t get a new 2007 2UZ powered 4Runner

 

[jerryb]

YO, we're gonna need pics

 

[Tentsontop]

Nope. No pics. I just wanted to post this as a warning to any who, like me, might be driving around with the original muffler thinking all is well. I know I've seen another muffler post similar to mine where the interior carpet melted. I'm gutted that it happened to such a clean/trouble free LX. The only visible rust on it is on the muffler. Like I said, live and learn.