When I was driving home from work, I kept getting whiffs of a burning smell. When I got home, I popped the hood to check out and make sure it wasn't oil. Nothing on the motor. I looked under the car to make sure it wasn't dripping and I see a plastic shopping bag melted to the downpipe. I got as much off as I could (most of it had already melted). My questions are, will this screw anything up and will the remaining plastic burn off? Thanks.

 

No, the plastic won't hurt anything unless it some how catches on fires......very bad then. i would try and scrape as much off as is possible.

 

if u have a heat gun or blow dryer.. that may help soften it up

 

like i said. most of the bag melted already. i'm just hoping it will go away cause i can't stand the smell. of course i had to get stuck in traffic from an accident on the way home so i had to smell it for longer!

 

Go for a drive to heat the downpipe up. Then, when hot, wipe off the melted plastic. It should come right off. I'd do it ASAP. Smelling plastic fumes can't be good for you.

 

that happened to my Eclipse several years ago.

the burning smell will be there for a while, for couple months I noticed.

I just let it burn out on its own, there's dark stained patch remained on Dp now...

 

yea same on my nissan... not much you can do to get it off unless you heat it up but then gotta be really careful when cleaning it. think no matter what it'll be stained. so long as smell isnt there, dont hurt to leave it.

 

That sucks! I'd use a steel brush f steel wool to get that off, just don't scrape the metal. Wonder how it caught or stuck onto the pipe.

 

Had the same thing happem to me a couple years ago. About the only thing you can do at this point is drive the car and let it burn off. But this will take some time.

 

mmmmm, that stinks. Whenever I see a plastic bagging floating over the middle of the street and I drive over it, I am always looking in the rear view to make sure it passes right through.

 

Don't listen to these guys who say there's nothing you can do about it and just let it burn off. I'd be proactive about this, since I'm pretty sensitive to fumes. It will only take 5 minutes to clean off. After a drive, just jack your car up and wipe off the melted plastic. Wear some thick gloves of course.

 

Some local guys and I were on a drive earlier this year and one of my friends got a plastic bag stuck to his exhaust. He didn't notice the bag on his exhaust until we had stopped after driving for a while, but he said he had to use a dremmel tool to get all the stains off the "stainless" steel.

 

I scraped a lot of this morn with a putty knife. It helped the smell a little. The bag got stuck under my car at work.


As for "stainless" steel. It's not really "stainless." It actually should be rust proof and not "stainless"