I have a 4.2 v6 with a 40 series muffler on it. At the moment i have my exhaust exiting behind the rear wheel. i went back to the muffler shop and asked him to put it in front of the rear wheel and the guy told me that if i did that it would make my chrome wheels turn blue or basically become discolored from the heat of the exhaust. is this true? i didn't think that was right because the lightnings have the exhaust exiting on the side in front of the rear wheel? should i go somewhere else and have it done? please help me out. i really like the looks of the side exhaust but i do not want my wheel to discolor.


03stx

 

Sometimes it will turn a plastic chrome cover green, if it is not washed regularly.

I had 20K miles on my stock wheels and center caps with the Gibson ST and Bassani Duals dumping in front of the rear wheel, with out it turning the cap green, but key to this seems to be washing your wheels. I am in a climate that gets cold, that is the other thing that some will note, that is the cause of the forward dump, and turning green syndrom.

I now have another 8.5K miles on the L wheels, and nothing on the wheel or cap, then again I get in there and clean my wheels.

I would find another muffler shop, to do your work at, this one seems to be passing on stuff that he has heard, without knowing what actually causes it. Never know what else he is going to tell you about non stock mufflers, something akin to setting CELs I would guess ( lots of those by me ). You should have asked him directly why the L does not have this problem then.

Wash your wheels, and you will be fine, but then again that goes for just about anything. Taking care of it, and it will be fine. It is the ones that don't get in there and celan the wheels that it turns green, and has a problem. These are also the ones that have black front wheels, from the brake dust.

Good luck finding another shop.

 

I've had a Gibson SuperTruck installed for four years and there is no discoloration on the wheel behind the exhaust.

 

Exhaust exiting in front of the rear whel will eventually cause pitting on the wheel itself, making the wheel dang near impossible to clean, and ultimately discoloring the wheel. Ford discovered this after the 97s exited in front of the rear wheel, and that's why they changed to behind the wheel in 98.

 

I wonder if my wheels being chrome would be the problem? or maybe just the stock exhaust tends to cause this problem? I am getting different stories some say it will turn green some say it won't. People that had it turn green, was your exhuast stock? also if i just went ahead and dumped it right out of the muffler would it make it louder?

 

How many miles do you have to drive to have this happen.

Mine being 20K miles easy inside of 2 years, and another member with 4 years and nothing either.

Don't know how long we need to wait and see if this happens.

So far no pitting on either my stock or my L wheels...

This is one of those rumors that gets handed around, smilar to the one posting about how a K&N filter caused oil analysis to turn up mass quanities of dirt in the oil, and they should not be used.

The rumor mill is a dangerous thing. I've got first hand knowledge of no damage, but then again I actually wash my wheels. Do you have a 97 that the wheel pitted or the cap had similar damage ?

 

Yes, I do have a 97 with the side-exit, and that particular wheel is pitted all to heck. It didn't turn green, it just looks like it constantly has really bad brake dust on it, no matter how much I clean it. Maybe it is just the stock exhaust, I am not sure about that, but that really is why Ford moved the exhaust to behind the wheel in 98, when I called Ford about the door cracks, the guy on the phone told me about the exhaust placement because I had a 97 and he asked me if it was becoming a problem with pitting my wheel, and I had never checked it until then, but that's when I noticed it, and he said it was because of the exhaust. I have no idea exactly how long it took for this to develop, but a good estimate is at around 75,000 miles and/or 3 years. It would probably not be as bad if you rotated the wheels regularly, but then I guess that eventually, it would destroy all 4 wheels.

 

this whole wheel pitting thing sounds obscure to me. I have a 97 with 97000 miles, side exit factory exhaust and the chrome look wheels...they look gorgeous still...no pitting...am i just lucky. I want to replace the exhaust for a better note but wanted to keep the short exhaust because the shorter the pipe the better the sound.

 

I have a Bassani side-exit on my 95 Lightning that comes out in front of the rear tire. 40,000 miles and not a hint of discoloration, pitting, or any other negative effect of the exhaust.

Just some food for thought.