When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
After looking at my exhaust tips and noticing years of what appears to be carbon buildup, I decided to tackle cleaning them. Here's my experience. With a little elbow grease and ~ $2 my exhaust tips look like new.
I used turtle wax Chrome Polish. It cost two dollars at Walmart and did the job nicely. Simply clean the exhaust tips with soap and water first to remove baked on contaminates, then get to work. Rub the polish over the dark/dirty areas and press firmly to scrub the carbon off. Obviously the longer it's been without being cleaned, the more elbow grease needed. After, buff to a shine with a microfiber towel.
these were my tips before without a good clean for 2+ years:
And after the chrome polish:
There are of course different brands/types of polish but this one worked well for me and WAS ONLY TWO DOLLARS
Looking good, are those OEM? Anyone know if there were different tips as available options? Mine don't look like that, they're oval shaped, angled and not as thickly rounded at the edge.
Looking good, are those OEM? Anyone know if there were different tips as available options? Mine don't look like that, they're oval shaped, angled and not as thickly rounded at the edge.
I believe the rounded tips were for the 2011+ models
Looking good, are those OEM? Anyone know if there were different tips as available options? Mine don't look like that, they're oval shaped, angled and not as thickly rounded at the edge.
The little things make the difference! I used 0000 steel wool on mine. Really shines them up.
Same here! Just make sure to use painters paint around the lower bumper or lip area surrounding the tip so it doesn't get roughed up by the steel wool.
i have f sport exhaust. is the cleaning process the same? mine looks a bit rusted though..
what did you use to apply the polish and what did you use to rub?
thanks for sharing!
you can use a microfiber cloth to apply the polish and buff out the tips, but if you have road tar and other imperfections you could get some coarse steel wool and add polish to that and buff the tips. Just wipe the excess polish off at the end with a clean dry microfiber cloth. The rust is usually just on the surface and should come out with the steel wool and chrome polish.
Yeah the process is the same and as mentioned above, the polish can be applied with any cloth right over surface rust. It'll clean the rust right off. I used a cotton rag with a little more 'rough' surface than a microfiber towel to help with the scrubbing but it is more pressure than anything else.
buff after with a microfiber towel.
just FYI steel will most likely leave a brushed metal look that can't be buffed out as opposed to shined chrome from just polish