Hi,
I know some of the SHawd 4G has the oil consumption issue. I have been owning my 2012 Fwd TL since 2015, I did not see black soot before, and no oil consumption at all.
Recently, I walked around against my car, noticed the black soot accumulated on the lower portion of the tailpipe, then I checked the oil level in the morning, oil level is right in the middle of the gauge just like when I did the oil change by myself I guess (did oil change 2 months ago).
anyone has idea about the black soot on the tailpipe on fwd model. barely hit vetec, 3 or 4 times a month probably. most of time hit 3k rpm


Thanks

 

It's not oil, it's just carbon buildup and it's totally normal.

 

modern cars run rich at start up to "fire up" the catalytic converters

 

Hi, if it is carbon buidup on the tailpile, does it mean, inside the engine, it built up a lot of carbon already?

 

carbon is a by-product of combustion.

 

It's really nothing to be concerned about unless you notice oil consumption, my 2012 Fwd has carbon on the tips at 40k miles and my car is in mint condition with zero oil consumption issues.

 

I know one way to get rid of carbon buildup

 

well?

 

"Italian" tuneup - running the engine at full load for as long as (legally?) possible to burn off some of the carbon. For me, I just run it at high RPM's in VTEC every now and then. Well, truthfully, probably every day. Ok, several times a day The TL isn't a purebred performance sedan but I didn't buy it to go slow either.

Or there's Seafoam which I used to think was snake oil, but I'm half convinced that it does some good.