Soot in my CRV tailpipe, what to do?

[Jack Smith]

I have a 2010 CRV LX 4wd with ~30K. I bought the car new in 2010 and drive it to commute to work and back. Everyday I drive 1 mile to drop off my kids and another mile to work, the same routine back home after work. I live in upstate NY. So I guess in the winter the car doesn’t really get to normal temperature. In any case, today I realized that there is soot in the tailpipe. That is, when I wipe the inside of the tailpipe with one finger, it came out totally black. By the look of it, it doesn’t seem to have accumulated a lot of soot; at least just looking at it, it doesn’t seem to have clear soot. However, I tried my wife’s Corrola, the tailpipe is completely clean. Swipe on the inside and my finger came out clean. Does it mean there is something seriously wrong with my CRV engine? I am asking because the car is still under powertrain warranty, so if there is anything, I should just get it fixed.

BTW, I posted a few days ago about rust in my engine (especially the metal sheet right beneath the oil cap is completely rusty). Turns out it is not rust, I was able to clean it completely with a rag and brake cleaner. Does this have anything to do with the soot?

Thanks a lot!

Topic

[Its me]

Black soot is usually an indicator of a rich fuel condition…

Based off you driving habits of one mile to drop off kids and another mile to work (glad you included this key information), you are correct in assuming that your car is not getting to the best operating temperature…

Here is what is happening and why… When your car is cold it runs in open loop (does not go into closed loop until the coolant is at operating temp… around 190 or so Fahrenheit) when in open loop your engine runs off rich fuel maps in the PCM… Since the car is barely getting into closed loop (I’m sure it does by the time you park it) you are running a rich condition (more fuel than air) most of the time.

What you can do is warm the vehicle up to operating temperature before you drive and perhaps every once in a while take it for a nice WOT ride for a few miles (legally of course)… The old days of blowing the carbon out as the joke went truly applies to your situation…

And why your wife’s Corolla exhaust is completely clean, well that is because a Toyota is the chariot of the gods…. LOL 🙂

Cheers

-Karl

[Jack Smith]

Thanks a lot, Karl. I do agree that at least in my house the corolla is much better. My wife also only drive 2 mile to work everyday, but her car is clean inside the engine (especially under the oil cap) and in the tailpipe.

In any case, I guess I don’t have much to worry about with the engine. It all about my short trips everyday. I am already decided to change oil way more often than before (every 2 months in the winter), hope this will help extend the engine life a bit.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Honestly, that’s a normal condition. Especially with the type of driving you do. It’s very common to see that on Honda tail pipes in my experience. If you’re not experiencing any performance problems or anything like that I would ignore it.

[Author]

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