Exhaust Tips from Hell

[Mavin]

So the exhaust tips on my 2008 A4 have never been neglected for 55,000 miles, are frankly were in brutal shape. Im a newbie, and reading had led me to find that many people recommend p21s polishing soap for their exhaust tips. Well, that stuff did not touch the horror that was my exhaust tips x2.

Right


Left (After OPC and P21s polishing soap)



Knowing I need some help, I picked up some extra supplies:

--Mothers Powerball Mini
--Mothers Chrome polish
--Megs medium cut metal polish
--0000 steel wool
--Totally Awesome Cleaner (I tried straight OPC which wasnt doing much, so didnt feel like wasting the expensive stuff!)



I unfortunately did not take a lot of pics along the way because my hands were filthy. I scrubbed with the steel wool and LAs cleaner with minimal improvement. I tried a round of megs medium cut polish which also was not really touching the main issue. At that point I know that Im in trouble anyway, so I grab a razor blade and carefully scrap off some of the intense/thick carbon build up. This was very effective at getting off that thick top layer.

Once I had some metal to work with, I did two rounds of the megs medium cut polish with the power ball, and then a few more rounds with the mothers polish on the powerball. The ball worked quite well in saving me some elbow grease. I wish it was a little smaller to be honest, and I had the mini-version. It is a little tough to maneuver in tight spaces, and if it was smaller you could have a little more control. That said, I was pleased overall with it. As you can see, it took off a lot of crud!



The exhaust tips themselves have clearly suffered damage from years of neglect, and have some pitting that no amount of polishing was going to fix. However, they at least are now silver and shiney instead of black! I put on a coat of 845 after I finished to hopefully protect them a little. I left the insides black, as it was just not worth the effort of trying to get those clean.






Thanks to all the advice from this thread:

http://www.autopiaforums.com/forums/...ce-please.html

[tropicsteve]

pretty dramatic improvement i would say !!!

[wendell jarvis]

nice recovery

[Evan.J]

Nice turn around!

[jtford95]

Sweet job. Real smooth

[classofshine]

Polishing soap is more of a maintenance product, when its that bad you need power! Nice work.

[Trouble]

You deserve an `A` for effort. Cleaning dirty pipes like that is NO FUN !!!

Did they have a set screw?

[Dcox9]

I use that APC on everything. for the price you cant beat it.

[Beemerboy]

I see exhaust tips like these all the time on the Harleys I detail. My process is pretty quick and effect. I use Stoners Tarminator or Gunk Gel let that sit on the metal for a few minutes, the longer the better in some cases....Then using 0000 steel wool you can remove almost everything in a few seconds.

Then I hand polish with PB PP and it`s as good as new every time

[Todd@RUPES]

Nice turnaround!

[glen e]

I started the other thread and have about 3 weeks on the Borla Exhaust Polish that got them really bright, and then I sealed them with opti-coat. I constantly get comments on the shine of them...

[Stokdgs]

I have seen many, many, Audi`s and I personally think the reason they get the tips so bad is because - especially on the Turbo engines, they are blowing out engine oil and this cakes up on the exhaust tips and basically cooks there for as long as they are neglected..

So, it would seem you would need something to first help break down coked oil, I think, and probably anything that removes Tar would be better at first to break that thick layer down.

And then when its pretty much gone, any metal polish will help, although it looks like Audi does not really get nicely plated exhaust tips for their cars..

BMW seems to use better plated exhaust tips that even if dirty, (but I have never seen any as bad as Audi), they always clean up and shine really great.

Just did 2 tips on a 2007 A4 that was in the shop and had to have new Piston Rings installed, so you can imagine how much cooked, hardened oil was on the tips..

I got it down using alot of Tarminator at first, with 0000 steel wool, and eventually used Optimum Metal Polish which has chemical cleaners that also help break down better than most products, and they looked very clean inside and out.

And as you already know, this is a very messy job and nitrile gloves are a must !

You did a great job ! Now, keep a good product on them and they will stay cleaner much easier and longer.

Dan F

[Pats300zx]

Excellent turnaround