In the past two months I’ve seen two vehicles (a car and a pickup) with strange tailpipes while behind them at lights, and I’m hoping dopers can shed some light on what the owners were doing with them since I can’t fathom the purpose. In both cases, rather than the tailpipe being straight and ending under the bumper, give or take a couple of inches, as usual, these tailpipes extended a few inches beyond that, and then were bent at a fairly sharp angle; basically L shaped, but in reverse. In both cases the bent pipe went behind the rear right tire, ending close to the center of the bumper like so:
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It looked like the tailpipe was no more than an inch or two from the tire. I pointed it out to a passenger the first time I noticed one of these, and was told it was more than likely something done by the owner since there were what looked like weld marks on the tailpipe.
What would this be done for?? It looks dangerous, and I can’t figure out what the advantage would be over a traditional straight pipe.
Couple of things could influence the tailpipe routing…such as the location of the fuel tank and rear-suspension components. It’s also possible the driver/owner invested heavily in tuned resonators instead of mufflers, and wanted to enjoy the sound.
I have read the OP four times, and frankly, I have no clue what you are trying to describe.
OK, this makes sense.
The tailpipes extend beyond the rear bumper and are then bent at a sharp angle?
Can I buy a vowel here? I’m lost. What is a backward L?
Then the pipes went from behind the rear bumper to next to the right rear tire, and then back to the rear bumper? somewhere in this mess was a backwards L?
My head hurts.
Simply a guess, the bend may be to void condensation.
However, in some jurisdictions anything other than OEM welding on the exhaust system will fail roadworthy inspection.
I’m not picturing it either. Sounds maybe like a behind the wheel dump, something typical on a fair amount of trucks I’ve seen. They usually stick out just enough to get into the air flow when the vehicle is moving but not far enough to really be a nuisance. Perhaps a picture would help.
Before tailpipes were part of vehicle styling, like say in the early 1970s, it was common (bordering on universal) for the exhaust system to extend rearwards to just behind one or the other rear tire, then turn 90 degrees and end a few inches behind the rear tire extending 1/2" to 1-1/2" outboard of outboard edge of the rear tire.
I beleive this was most common on vehicles like station wagons whose back windows could be open while driving. But for parts commonality it was often seen on the edan version of the same platform. I suspect they decided that dumping the exhaust out the side reduced the amount of exhaust that would be sucked back in the open rear window.
In order to clear the rear-wheel drive axle, it was not uncommon for the final curve from fore/aft to sideways to be behind the axle. Remember that cars in those days tended to have huge overhangs, where the overall vehicle length was much greater than the wheelbase.
ISTR seeing many cases where the exhaust pipe went straight aft past the axle, did a 180 followed by a 90 the other way to make the net 90 degree bend & then extend transversely to the side of the car plus a bit.
So less-than-minimum-length routings are not unheard of. There are other cosiderations besides simply making the shortest, straightest pipe.
If the OP is seeing homemade work, that could have been done for any reason or no reason. Lots of folks who like to weld have no clue what they’re doing.
Just a guess, but are you seeing accident damage? Back a modern low-clearance car into an obstacle like a curb & you can mash the tailpipe pretty thoroughly without doing much/any body damage.
Well what I don’t understand either is the talk of welding on the tail pipe at all. If there were any welds on the exhaust system at all I would think they would be at the joints although the clamps the OEM has these days are normally only used to join units or modules of parts together, examples being resonator and tailpipe to the muffler or muffler to the y pipe and cat. convertor. Those units being welded together for structure requirements and ease of replacement. Of course vehicles vary greatly however I don’t recall seeing a single one that any welds are visible from the rear of the vehicle as that falls under the exterior appearance of the vehicle and must be presentable for the most part. This is a strange OP in my opinion.
Are you talking about tailpipes on truck that exit out the side, behind the rear wheel?
If you ever towed anything, you’d realize why that is important. As far as I know, it is all about making the truck better equipped to tow.
First, the rear of the truck will sag a bit with a big load. When backing up, the exhaust – if routed out the back – could dip into the dirt/ground/whatever.
If you are hauling a boat, a fast way to kiss your truck goodbye is to back down a launch ramp and have the truck stall when the exhaust tailpipes are under water, or the tailpipes are grinding on the boat-launch ramp and need repair later.
Also, when working near the hitch, you don’t want exhaust coming up into your face, because there are times when you and/or a helper will be working the truck, the hitch and the load to connect/disconnect.
For towing, depending on the exact truck, a side exhaust is very helpful, will prevent damage, possible stalling, exhaust inhalation, and can even keep stains off of whatever you are towing.
The tailpipes extend beyond the rear bumper and are then bent at a sharp angle?