My Countryman S has only been around for a week, but I've cleaned off black residue from the inside/outside of the tailpipes twice already.It's not dirt from normal driving, but obviously something being blown down the tailpipes from the engine. Never experienced this on any other car I've had. Being new to the MINI/turbo world, is this normal or something to be concerned about?

 

This is my third MINI and I have had the black stuff on all of them. Keep after it or it will get hard to clean.

Bill

 

This is a common occurrence that many of us have noticed. It prompts me to wonder if most of this is generated when the car is first started cold and is a result of the richer fuel/air mixture, plus the moisture that we frequently see dripping from the tailpipe while it's still cold.

I'm tempted to try an experiment. After driving a few miles, stop without turning off the engine, and wipe off the black residue. Then continue on to see if it appears again.

I realize I couldn't do this with the wife in the car, or she would know that I've gone over the edge.

Whatcha think??

 

This is the reason I switched out for black exhaust tips.

 

Really? You guys clean out the insides of your tailpipes? That's pretty over-the-top.

Do you scrub out the inside of the p-trap when you clean the bathroom sink?

 

why switch, just dont clean them and woila...black exhaust tips

 

As a retired proctologist, I find the internals of the cars exhaust system something to behold.





Just kidding

 

You think that's bad try dealing with diesel soot on the tips.

 

I clean 'em. Comes off like it's soot, so that's what I assume it is.

 

its caused by the carbnm build up that these cars are famous for Try using a higher octane gas.

 

I'm usually filling up with 93 and still getting the black stuff.

 

Nothing that octane will do to change it, it's a MINI. Normal unfortunately.

 

I just sold my BMW 335i and it also had the black soot but interestingly much worse on the right pipe than the left. I asked the service people about it a couple of times and was told this was normal and that the car was "operating as designed". I checked other 335i's in parking lots and sure enough, they all had the soot and it was always worse on the right pipe. I guess, based on what the service guy told me, that BMW designs their cars to produce this soot. Never had a car do this before that didn't have an engine problem. The poster who said you have to keep after it was right. After a while it is impossible to even scrub off (which makes me believe that it's not just soot, but rather something akin to tar).

 

sad but normal. I too switched out for black tips, but more because the black looked better with my colors than to hide carbon build up

 

I used that Armor All brake dust preventer stuff on the tips. It kept the outside clean for a couple of weeks or so. Inside the tips was a different story.

 

Most also have the rolled edge and these types of pipes seem to collect the black stuff. My JCW does not have the rolled pipe but just a straight edged pipe and does not collect any of that.

But my wife's R56 does and my prior R56 did as well.

 

Anybody have a link for the black tips?

 

lots of them available, bought mine from here:
http://www.dimisatips.com/

I got the 4", fits great