Yellow liquid from mufflers?

Car has been parked since the snow and extreme cold moved in here in the NE (about 1 month). Weather went from below freezing to 60F yesterday so lots of condensation in the garage. I noticed small puddles of a yellow liquid under both mufflers, Very bright yellow but also symmetrical on both sides. My son thinks its a combination of all the pollen we had in the summer combined with the condensation from the sudden weather change, I am attaching a few photos and wondering if anyone has ever seen anything like this. All color is under the mufflers so it doesnt appear to be coolant or feel like any other fluid the car uses. A forum search didnt show anything either. Apologies if the pictures look huge as they do on my screen. Not sure how to make them smaller and Im curious to see what others may opine with regard to my query. Thanks. General location - same on both sides closer view

Strange. That's really a bright yellow. Nice epoxy floor, btw. Where's all this "condensation " coming from with a sealed epoxy concrete slab? How would pollen have survived the muffler heat this many months past?? Animal urine would be my WAG.

If you zoom in on the photo you can actually see water droplets around the yellow puddle from condensation. I imagine the condensation is coming from the huge temp and humidity change and the fact that the whole floor was super chilled until yesterday. There are some random dirty water drops in other areas but again, the car hasn't been driven so its just dripping off of the cooler spots. No idea about the yellow. Trapped in the engine compartment somewhere and flowed out with condensation? No idea. The symmetry of the puddles on both side is also odd. Thanks about the floor. Its not epoxy, its polyaspartic which I was fortunate to secure through my employer.

It's ok. Your motor just learned of potential IMSB issues and pissed it's self.

Crossed my mind too. Fortunately it�s not ****, 996 or otherwise according to a sniff test. The bright color has me stumped.

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lol..That right there is funny, I don't care who you are.( in the voice of Larry the Cable guy). OP , I wouldn't worry about it, just check you fluids, clean it up and if no other symptoms drive it. I've never seen anything like it, but then again I have never seen that much condensation, except from the A/C. Where in the world do you live?

I�m in Connecticut. Wild weather lately. Not too worried about it just really curious where the color comes from.

coolant -- pink these days trans. oil -- looks like oil engine oil -- looks like oil power steering fluid -- reddish a/c fluids -- oily, like oil a/c condensation -- wet, no color, not greasy or oily battery acid -- sulfuric acid brake fluid -- oily, pungent windscreen fluid -- usually blue, but can be orange, green, or yellow However what you are seeing might just be condensation mixing with some coating on the muffler. Next time you drive your car for awhile, park it, and immediately take some snow and put it on the hot tailpipe and see if that melted residue that comes off is yellow.

Good thought. I�ll try that next time I have snow. It�s all gone for now.

Sulpher released by condensation in mufflers???

Great thought thanks. I managed to collect some and will try to dry it out and maybe burn it to see if it smells like rotten eggs.

It could be the fluid from your motor mounts. I noticed an odd fluid dripping from the bottom of an exhaust tip and traced it up through the heat shields to the ruptured mount. At first glance it seemed like it might have been coming out of the exhaust tip and the bottom of the muffler can, but it wasn't. That said, I don't recall the fluid being that distinct of a color. Also odd for both of them to rupture at the same time... but maybe the cold temps were too much for the old rubber?

Motor mount fluid is also VERY stinky.

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Fluid does not have any distinct odor. Smells slightly like an engine bay. Like water and not sticky. Residual refroze in the garage since it�s cold again. Will take it to work and check pH, try to evaporate and burn it, and anything else we can think of to try. Will let you know what we find. Appreciate the replies everyone.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...article621975/

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great article but I don�t think it applies here. Car has not been driven in over a month and never saw the snow or hot exhaust temp for the reaction to occur, only the wild outside temp changes and subsequent condensation in the garage. Zinc oxide is white at room temp plus it�s insoluble (the white stuff lifeguards use). I still have a sample of a bright yellow mystery dissolved in water.

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great article but I don�t think it applies here. Car has not been driven in over a month and never saw the snow or hot exhaust temp for the reaction to occur, only the wild outside temp changes and subsequent condensation in the garage. Zinc oxide is white at room temp plus it�s insoluble (the white stuff lifeguards use). I still have a sample of a bright yellow mystery dissolved in water.

So what's above that spot on the floor, look upwards to see what's overhead. maybe something mixed with something else? but what would be yellow? what does it feel like? oily, watery, ?

So I did some more work on this stuff. Our analytical capabilities are somewhat limited so I enlisted the help of a friend with access to better FTIR libraries. Short version - its lead chromate. Must be in one of the additives in gasoline. Coincidentally its the same color used for school buses. No, I did not run into one.

good lord

So is that from a gas line leak or a catalytic converter issue? Since you said you didn't run over a school bus, there's something above the puddle that is creating that.

My wild guess - since lead chromate is used as a paint pigment, you ran over some painted yellow lines on the road and it got flipped up on your mufflers, and then due to some moisture/condensation cooling/heating cycle, it dripped off your mufflers onto the garage floor. Thing to do is crawl under there with a flashlight and look at your mufflers. Highly doubtful in my mind it is actually dripping from anywhere on or about your engine. Had an incident with wife's car. Some contractor left a huge puddle of white paint at an intersection and she drove through it. Had to replace all four tires, four wheel liners and spend hours getting the paint off the body work. Amazing what that did.

That's a great deduction! And I'll put my money on it being from a freshly painted yellow stripe on the road. That happened to me once, and I was able to remove it without damage to my car.

gonna share dis beauty at the bar

How long have you owned the car? Just wondering if PO had install some mufflers from an Auto-breaker, they use a yellow marking paint to identify a part as theirs for warranty purpose.

Could be dye for checking leaks, on coolant or a/c system? Is your coolant in that color as well?

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coolant is standard pink stuff. I saw a ford truck forum where others said the same thing dripping into snow. I reckon that cement won�t show the color but since my floor is resinous it didn�t absorb the liquid. This may be more common than we think. The lead part is troubling though. Gonna do some more research to see if it�s some other counter ion instead. It is definitely directly above the mufflers - both sides, same drip pattern.

Wisconsin is experimenting with using cheese brine for treating the snowy roads. Maybe it's cheese!

I had $5 on it being Alien blood after a hit & run. Or blinker fluid.

Have you looked up to trace the leak? Do you own a cat?

Mouse Pee !

Pretty sure a muffler fluid change will resolve it.

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was thinking the same.... I know mine is due

Leaking Blinker Fluid?

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Just in case here is a DIY..... ​​​​​​ You Tube

This seemed to be developing into an interesting thread with some real analysis capability to track down the culprit. Then.....

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Sorry. Just keeping entertained while we await the final verdict. I think it is condensation coupled with the type of metals used inside the muffler and the catalytic reaction of exhaust gasses. The type of gasoline he is using could also be a contributor. Different brands each have their own blends. I don't think it is from any fluids being lost from any of the systems.

Sulfur dioxide , SO2, is a colorless gas or liquid with a strong, choking odor. It is produced from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) and the smelting of mineral ores (aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, and iron) that contain sulfur . Sulfur dioxide dissolves easily in water to form sulfuric acid. The Ailing Environment Car Exhaust - Health Effects - Blumberg La b - Carbon Monoxide ; - Nitrogen Dioxide ; - Sulphur Dioxide ; -Particles such as PM-10; -Benzene; -Formaldehyde; -Polycyclic hydrocarbons .... colorless, white, or pale yellow - green solids; occur in air attached to dust particles, or in soil or sediment as solids; found in substances such as crude oil, coal, coal tar pitch, creosote, ...

General consensus is that it�s not lead as the counter ion for the reasons discussed. The chromate portion seems legit at this point and agrees with the color. Will leverage some better analytical resources but this will take a little bit of time. Measured the pH and it�s slightly basic so it�s not SO2 nor does it have any distinct odor. If it helps, I�m pretty sure it� has Valero premium in the tank right now. That�s about all we know thus far.

taste it............. old hillbilly trick.

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Always the Rennlist troll.

I'm on team road paint. Not sure if this is one of those Occam's razor things, but it seems like the most straightforward way for yellow tinted liquid to get on your floor if you don't have a pest problem or a cat. Yellow lines are ubiquitous with the U.S. road system though they're not often painted in the winter. Perhaps some old residue or you just kicked some old flakes up with your big ol' honkin' rear tires.

Samples are on their way to a local university where we have a collaborative arrangement, As for the paint theory, I dont think so. There is zero evidence of anything colored underneath the car anywhere. Further, there were six small puddles symmetrically spaced only under the mufflers. Each side had three small puddles and even the slightly larger puddles were all in the same area under both mufflers. That would be hard to do from running over something. Bottom line is car parked >1 month, temp change caused condensation in garage, of all the water that dripped from all the places from two vehicles, there were 6 specific puddles under the pcar (three under each muffler) that were all bright yellow. All other puddles were just dirty water. It may take a little while but stay tuned, I promise to post the results when available.

2002C2, when can we start laying down bets? What's the money line?? I have over a $2,000,000 in Agilent Tech. equipment in my labs; to include Mass Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography (HPLC). Let me know if you need any help.

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thanks LexVan. I love me a good science mystery. The university has all the GC/LC and MS equipment and EDX and even WAXS if I need to get down to the crystal structure. They�re pretty good but I will definitely take you up on your offer if I stump the band. As for bets I don�t window what to make of it. Best guess for me is some kind of chromium salt additive in the gasoline. Just don�t get how it can be so yellow with all the other crap that�s sure to be in the mufflers. They�re fabspeed if that lends any clue.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...article621975/

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Salt, water, and Zinc, sounds good to me !!

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Great! This is getting interesting. I used to have to develop laboratory procedures to decipher "mystery" compounds such as this. I really enjoyed it. Like solving a puzzle.

I swear this looks like some of those energy drinks those kids love to drink these days. Back in the day all we had was Mt. Dew. Ha!

Joking aside... coming from the south and having to deal with long pollen seasons and run off from it, I don't think it looks anything like a pollen water mix. It has kind of a bright metallic yellow which reminds me of the Prestone antifreeze. Any chance that dripped from another car?

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So, you skipped right over post #46? Just four above.

Update! My analytical expert reran the sample and the FTIR showed the same search result as before - Lead Chromate. No one believes lead is present so she ran EDX and found the following elements, C, Na, S, and Cr. So its some kind of chromate for sure but the absence of Cl indicates the Na is not from salt. Still waiting for the university results.

Sure sounds like road marking paint. Lead Chromate used to be in the yellow paint but the lead was removed for environmental reasons and replaced with proprietary formulas. Your spectrogrphy testing showed Lead Chromate but no lead in the chemical testing. So yellow road paint splashed up on your mufflers when you crossed a freshly painted road line. Since the formulas are proprietary it won't be possible to identify which brand of paint. I've driven across fresh yellow lines and had it splash up on my car undercarriage.

Definitely not paint from the road. No indication anywhere on the chassis and this was only under the mufflers and equally on both sides. That would be hard to run over something so symmetrically with no residual on the car. With the carbon etc. I�m leaning towards gasoline additives and by products of combustion. Still waiting on results from the university.

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Unless you backed into a parking spot that had a raised and painted concrete block. Am I really stretching here, lol?

Hey man, a butterfly bats his wings in Cambodia; 2002C2 creates a perfectly symmetrical spray pattern of old road paint on the bottom of his Porsche. In short, team road paint cares not for your logic .

you guys are a tough bunch which is half the fun. admittedly I got to the 5 yard line with the answer so i deserve it to some extent. i will keep researching but suffice it to say team yellow crap dripping from the mufflers (and only the mufflers!) parked in the garage is not on team road paint.

That's fair. And team road paint may soon become team "OMG why is THAT on your floor!?" after we hear back from the University. I hope, for your sake, we don't become the smuggest team on Rennlist!

Just curious, has the mysterious ectoplasm reoccured? Have you been following the same routine with your car that caused it in the first place? Maybe the reason the paint didn't stick to anything else is that you probably keep the undercarriage well waxed, as most of us do, thus the paint didn't stick. I haven't found a wax that will stay on the mufflers so it's hard to keep stuff off of them.

Okay, Got my sample back and did some wet chemistry to verify the hypothesis, To recap, yellow crap found under mufflers after drastic temp change caused condensation in garage. Friends analytical lab and university lab verified chromate being present and EDX from friends lab found sodium and chromium but no chlorine so no road salt - thankfully. Sodium chromate in the presence of hydrochloric acid (HCl) will form the dichromate and turn orange. In the presence of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) its a little more complicated but forms the trioxide which is reddish brown. I submit the photo below as final proof that sodium chromate is used as a gasoline additiv​​​​​​​e in my local (New England) area. Finally, I moved the wifes car not too long ago and saw a faint trail of yellow directly beneath the exhaust system on her car as well. Done.​​​​​​​ (sorry its sideways). Reaction with HCl is orange, H2SO4 is reddish brown.

So, a ppt forms w/ Cl but not with S?

I am no chemist so I wonder what the chromate does for the fuel mix? Also, isn't this a heavy metal and probably not so good to be fuming out the exhaust?

If it is indeed Sodium Chromate and is being used as a fuel additive, we have a problem Houston! I am not debating your chemical analysis and conclusions, but Sodium Chromate is a highly toxic and hazardous substance and breaks down into Chromium, which we do not want spewing into our environment from vehicles (much less the Sodium Chromate). And if it is being used in fuel as an additive and is producing the amount that dripped from your exhaust onto your garage floor....wow...just wow! Be careful with disposing of that stuff...it is highly toxic and a hazardous substance. I have done some research on Sodium Chromate and the only thing I have found so far is use by the petroleum industry as a corrosion inhibitor, mostly on tank linings. I wonder if where you buy your fuel has tanks lined with that substance and it is breaking down or leaching from the linings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chromate

Winter fuel blends are oxygenated additives so it is not coming from a winter fuel additive https://www.epa.gov/gasoline-standar...ter-oxygenates

Wow this is like how Dieselgate started. Team Road Paint bows to your efforts, sir.