Hi all, I recently got in a 981CS after years away from my old 987CS and love the car. I noticed the control arms appear to be getting weird dirty, and the rear bumper gets soot looking spots quickly after a spirited drive. Is this normal?

I also installed a Fabspeed Maxflo on it, can't recall if it was like this with stock exhaust.

I did autocross the car recently, so maybe something tar-ish was getting kicked up. It wiped off after this pic pretty easily.

Thoughts?

Using Mobil 1? Motul 8100 X-cess spits less on the bumper cover I'm not sure whether my control arms get any spray but the bumper cover does occasionally

Yep, M1 0w40. Interesting, that could be it. It doesn't seem like a big problem, but was odd enough to wonder if other 981's have this happen.

That doesn't look like oil. Looks more like sooty water from the exhaust. Maybe a leaking exhaust joint?

Maybe. I torqued the header to muffler pipe attachment down pretty good using the factory gasket, but I suppose it could be leaking slightly. I may try to get under it and torque everything real good again in case the heat cycling made something loosen up.

Thanks for the thoughts - hadn't thought of exhaust joint.

Would an exhaust leak from the joint (looks like maybe it could be the part between muffler and the mid pipe?) cause any performance or reliability issues? I probably won't have a chance to get under it in the next day or two.

I don't think letting that persist a few days is going to harm anything unless it's near a gasket and it contributes to it's degradation.

good grief

you ruined it .......the diagnostics where about to go into a legendary M1 thread of how it stains the rear of the car . it sure does confirm that better anti-tamper fasteners are lacking

Facts is facts EX and M1 spits like they added "red man" as a secret ingredient. If Wallmart had Motul it would an an easy choice for me.

Would you able to share links to the referenced M1 thread of staining the rear?

This sounds similar to something that I was looking into but the searches I tried did not bring anything that seemed to fit.

ask terbiumactivated ........that is thee expert on that beauty ....not me,i just posted on it for the laughs .i will go out on a limb and say M1 DOES NOT STAIN THE UNDER SIDE OF YOUR CAR but hey you keep looking now you have a partner on the theory

WD 40 stains less as does extra virgin oil

It's never stained my car but some small particles do get on the rear bumper cover between washes, that was my only point I was just messing around Ex no hard feelings. I run M1 all the time.

I have inadvertently awakened the ages old M1 debate. But in better news, re-tightening the connecting pipe clamps has eliminated or nearly eliminated the stuff on the control arms and stuff. The bumper dust terbium mentioned still happens.