Car exhaust pipes glow red like fire, danger lurks in hot season

Recently, the image of a truck's exhaust pipe glowing red as if it was being baked in a furnace was shared on social networks and attracted the attention of many people.

The exhaust filter on the car is red as if it was baked in a furnace. Photo: OFFB

Through the image, many people believe that the temperature of the car exhaust pipe can reach up to thousands of degrees Celsius, if accidentally entangled with straw, it can easily cause a car fire. In fact, in the past, there have been many cases of car fires caused by straw entangled in the exhaust pipe.

Mr. Thanh Tam - owner of Thanh Tam auto repair garage said: "Some of the reasons that lead to the exhaust pipe being red hot come from the engine operating unstablely due to the fuel not being completely burned during the working process, leading to it going down the exhaust pipe and causing a fire in the exhaust pipe or due to a clogged exhaust filter. But the most common is still due to a clogged exhaust filter".

Exhaust filters are an indispensable part of today's car models. The internal structure is a honeycomb-shaped exhaust filter core made of ceramic and metal.

This core is coated with a chemical catalyst, usually a rare metal such as Platinum, Rhodium, Palladium... which neutralizes exhaust fumes, reduces the amount of toxic gases emitted by the car, and also has a sound-reducing effect.

Catalytic Convert exhaust filter core.

"During use, if the engine is not operating properly, excess fuel will be discharged into the filter and burned right in this area. Over time, dirt and excess fuel will clog the honeycomb holes, leading to clogged filters. When clogged, the engine will still generate power and cause high pressure, high temperature, making the exhaust pipe look red hot," Mr. Tam added.

He also said that the phenomenon of the exhaust pipe being red-hot like above is not uncommon, often occurring with large-sized vehicles such as SUVs, pickup trucks, trucks or vehicles with large engine capacity. However, because the exhaust system is located under the vehicle, it will be more difficult to observe with cars.

The reason to recognize that the car's exhaust filter is having problems is when the car shows signs of being sluggish, having difficulty accelerating, easily stalling, consuming more fuel, or even the engine cannot start.

According to the owner of Thanh Tam garage, the solution is to take the car to the garage to remove the exhaust filter and treat it with specialized chemicals. This is a cheap and economical method for car owners, ranging from 1.5-2 million VND, which can be higher depending on the complexity of the location of this part.

The cost of replacing a car's exhaust filter is not cheap, ranging from several tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dong depending on the car model.

But to completely fix this problem, the car owner should replace the exhaust filter, but the cost of this will be much more expensive. For popular cars, the price of an exhaust filter is about 10-15 million VND, while for luxury cars, the price can be from several tens to hundreds of millions of VND.

Therefore, to avoid spending a lot of money, experienced experts say that regular care and maintenance will help users detect vehicle problems early. The filter also has a lifespan, so users need to replace it according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

Only then will the car always operate stably, while helping users avoid many risks encountered during use. Remember that careless actions in car maintenance are the leading cause of car fires in hot weather conditions.