Exhaust melted the bumper

[jcm55]

Greetings!

This is sort of a new member intro with a question as well. My 17-yo son and I recently bought a 1998 Boxster with 157K miles. Far from perfect cosmetically with some paint blemishes and trashed leather seats. But well-sorted mechanically as we can tell so far. I think a fair number of buyers were scared off by a mysterious chirp-chirp-chirp noise from the engine. Which we pre-diagnosed as a likely loose spark plug with the help of some research here and decided to take a chance. It turned out to be exactly that. So overall it starts, idles, runs and drives great now.

We live up near Lake Tahoe and on Thurs I took it down to Reno for a new set of tires. (Michelin Pilot Sport 4 All-Seasons on the upgraded OEM 18-inch rims it came with). I decided to take Mt. Rose Hwy. on the way back home which is fun road that climbs from Reno (4500 ft elevation) up to the pass (8900 ft) over 8 miles and then back down to the north end of the lake.

At my next stop I noticed that the exhaust had totally fried the bumper cover. The crescent moon heat shield had fallen off and the part of the bumper cover it was protecting looks like a roasted marshmallow now. I’m trying to figure out what happened here.

As best I can tell, the oval exhaust tip is maybe a little bit tweaked from backing into something at some point, so it’s slightly angled up. And it appears the bumper cover itself is maybe misaligned somehow (even before this incident) so that the bottom is bulging out in the center a bit, making the exhaust tip kind of recessed into the bumper notch. With the net effect being that the exhaust was kind of blowing directly onto the heat shield instead of the exhaust tip passing under it.

Any other diagnoses or things to check? I want to be reasonably we’ve got a handle on it before we invest in a replacement bumper cover.

[JFP in PA]

Two observations: Either the bumper cover is installed wrong, or the muffler is too far foward with the tip bent upwards; possible due to the car being rear ended at some point. Once the heat shield came off, the exhaust heat did the rest.

[CarGuyNeil]

I agree, the tip is pushed up and in and once the shield came off, (likely due to the impact) the cover was just in the way. Luckily you should be able to find a used cover and/or Muffler.

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[jcm55]

Disassembly reveals all. The exhaust tip is definitely angled up, and the oval a bit squished. But *also* the bumper cover is pushed out at the bottom because the whole impact bar is rotated forward. Looks like the car got hit from behind hard enough to bend the shock absorber mounting plates (along with the mounting surface behind them).

New muffler and shock absorbers are straightforward. We’ll have to see how it goes with mounting the new absorbers. The center of the mounting surface is pushed in enough that the bolts are obviously angled now.

[CarGuyNeil]

I'm wondering of you can just leave the shock absorbers alone. It may be more trouble than it is worth the replace them. I suppose it depends on how badly they are out of position.

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[jcm55]

I was able to get them plumb by flipping them over and using some fender washers on the bottom bolt as shims behind the bracket. (Never used fender washers on an actual fender before &#128539.