Salt, water, and Zinc, sounds good to me !!

 

Great! This is getting interesting. I used to have to develop laboratory procedures to decipher "mystery" compounds such as this. I really enjoyed it. Like solving a puzzle.

 

I swear this looks like some of those energy drinks those kids love to drink these days. Back in the day all we had was Mt. Dew. Ha!

 

Joking aside... coming from the south and having to deal with long pollen seasons and run off from it, I don't think it looks anything like a pollen water mix. It has kind of a bright metallic yellow which reminds me of the Prestone antifreeze. Any chance that dripped from another car?

 

So, you skipped right over post #46? Just four above.

 

Update! My analytical expert reran the sample and the FTIR showed the same search result as before - Lead Chromate. No one believes lead is present so she ran EDX and found the following elements, C, Na, S, and Cr. So its some kind of chromate for sure but the absence of Cl indicates the Na is not from salt. Still waiting for the university results.

 

Sure sounds like road marking paint. Lead Chromate used to be in the yellow paint but the lead was removed for environmental reasons and replaced with proprietary formulas. Your spectrogrphy testing showed Lead Chromate but no lead in the chemical testing. So yellow road paint splashed up on your mufflers when you crossed a freshly painted road line. Since the formulas are proprietary it won't be possible to identify which brand of paint. I've driven across fresh yellow lines and had it splash up on my car undercarriage.

 

 

 

Hey man, a butterfly bats his wings in Cambodia; 2002C2 creates a perfectly symmetrical spray pattern of old road paint on the bottom of his Porsche.

In short, team road paint cares not for your logic .

 

you guys are a tough bunch which is half the fun. admittedly I got to the 5 yard line with the answer so i deserve it to some extent. i will keep researching but suffice it to say team yellow crap dripping from the mufflers (and only the mufflers!) parked in the garage is not on team road paint.

 

That's fair. And team road paint may soon become team "OMG why is THAT on your floor!?" after we hear back from the University. I hope, for your sake, we don't become the smuggest team on Rennlist!

 

Just curious, has the mysterious ectoplasm reoccured? Have you been following the same routine with your car that caused it in the first place?

Maybe the reason the paint didn't stick to anything else is that you probably keep the undercarriage well waxed, as most of us do, thus the paint didn't stick. I haven't found a wax that will stay on the mufflers so it's hard to keep stuff off of them.

 

Okay, Got my sample back and did some wet chemistry to verify the hypothesis, To recap, yellow crap found under mufflers after drastic temp change caused condensation in garage. Friends analytical lab and university lab verified chromate being present and EDX from friends lab found sodium and chromium but no chlorine so no road salt - thankfully. Sodium chromate in the presence of hydrochloric acid (HCl) will form the dichromate and turn orange. In the presence of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) its a little more complicated but forms the trioxide which is reddish brown. I submit the photo below as final proof that sodium chromate is used as a gasoline additiv​​​​​​​e in my local (New England) area. Finally, I moved the wifes car not too long ago and saw a faint trail of yellow directly beneath the exhaust system on her car as well. Done.​​​​​​​ (sorry its sideways).


Reaction with HCl is orange, H2SO4 is reddish brown.