My driver side exhaust tip is significantly lower than my passenger side one. Is there any DIY way to raise the driver side one?

Sorry not the greatest picture.

 

could be loose/worn exhaust hangar bushing

 

XDMS, you'll need to figure out why it's hanging low.

we cannot look at the car over the internet, and therefore cannot diagnose and treat your symptoms.

look underneath the car and find out WHY its hanging low.
after you find out why, then you can figure out how to fix it

 

^+1

 

one always hangs lower than the other

 

^

 

^^

 

To answer the OP's question yes there is a relatively easy way to fix this. Its usually always the drivers side tip that starts to hang a little lower than the passenger side. One reason being is there is no flange connecting the passenger side muffler to the rest of the exhaust. its a welded pipe that comes out of the muffler and is a solid pipe that goes all the way to the jpipe. The drivers side on the other hand has a flange with 2 bolts thats relatively close to the muffler.
I am extremely anal and every car I own has to have perfectly aligned exhaust tips (OCD). On a couple previous TL's they both had drivers side tips that hung just a tad lower than the other side.

So there are a couple ways you can go about fixing it. First would be to just go to any exhaust shop and have them tweak the exhaust hanger. Yeah it will cost some money but shouldnt be too bad. You can do it yourself but the exhaust hanger thats near the muffler is a pretty solid piece and is not easy to bend. I did this method once and basically you have to get the metal part that goes through the rubber hanger to bend DOWN (in order to get the muffler to rise a little). So I jammed a short 2x4 between the frame and exhaust hanger, then used my floor jack to jack the muffler up which in turn will bend the hanger downward. Dont go too crazy just do small raises at a time then see if its working. This may sound confusing and unfortunately I dont have pictures so if this helps you out or not I dunno.

The next method which I think is the easiest can be done without any jack or 2x4's or anything like that. Lay on the ground and look at the flange with the two bolts securing the drivers side muffler to the exhaust pipe. Loosen the two bolts until there is play in the flange, but dont actually remove anything. you may need to spray some stuff on the bolts if they are rusted. They can also be pretty tight so you may need a larger socket or even a small breaker bar. Once the bolts are loose you will basically find something to jam in the gap between the lower side of the two flanges. I used a couple decent size washers. Then once the washers are jammed into the LOWER side you can retighten the bolts. This creates just enough gap to re-angle the muffler up just a hair. I believe there is a metal gasket inside that flange which will likely still be sealed decently, otherwise you can put a bead of gasket maker on the lower side of the flange. Even if you dont do this that section is so far down stream that it wont make a difference and you certainly wont hear anything.


I know that was a lot of info with no pictures to back it up, but if you read it a few times then get under the car I think you might be able to figure out what im talking about. Hope this helps.

James

 

James, thank you. I may just get under my car and look at this, because I have the same problem. I'll post some pictures if I do. OP, thank you for raising this. One more little thing to fix.

 

Probably a worn rubber hanger. They should be $5 at any parts store.

 

could be a lot of things.


did the OP check to see if the rubber exhaust hanger is worn?

 

is your transmission slipping too?

 

x20 on a hanger.