hey all, just hoping to get some input here. My car just recently started to shoot out black soot(and oil?) out the exhaust. It never did this last year before i put it away for storage for the winter. This year when i took it out i noticed it backfiring sometimes which it never used to do.. so im going to assume that im running to rich? rich is better than lean though right? is this anything major to worry about, or should i just check the plugs and wires and go from there? i'll include some pics of the soot and my car (i held up a piece of cardboard to my exhaust to catch the soot, also not happy with the soot streaks across the driveway....) any advice would be appreciated, much thanks!

 

Fairly normal, to some degree. Condensation in the exhaust that gets spit out on initial start up. As your weather gets warmer, it should decrease.

 

alright, i'll be sure to monitor it. Are there bigger problems that this could be pointing out though? i just want to know what signs to look for before something drastically goes wrong. say if it doesnt get better as the weather warms up?

 

When you live in the areas that have some of the more extreme temperature changes (i.e. 90 degrees one day, 50 degrees the next), you'll see this more often with the condensation in the exhaust. Your exhaust will have soot in it with a catalytic converter in place, which is what mixes with the condensation.