I have a 2008 Chevy suburban with the 5.3l engine. A few days ago I noticed a really bad foul smell coming from underneath the truck and I thought some fluid leak of some kind was landing on the exhaust and burning off. Today I jacked up the truck and went underneath to find that a jelly or honey like substance was caked on the y-pipe cross member. It looks disgusting! That is the only part under the truck that I can find it, just on that exhaust pipe. Any ideas what it could be? At first I thought some rodent may have climbed up onto the exhaust to stay warm and then just caught fire and burnt, but this jelly sustance seems to be all over the place on that cross member, but just on that exhaust piece and nowhere else, so not really sure about that theory. I haven't tried removing it yet, and it's taking its good old time burning off. Very odd indeed! Any thoughts about what I'm dealing with? I've got some photos, but not sure how to post them here.
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Check all your fluids to make sure you haven't lost any.
But since you say it's jelly-like then maybe it's grease. Make sure the grease boots didn't rupture on your ball-joints, CV joints, steering etc. Gear oil if you have a front axle.
Otherwise ... maybe you picked something up off the road.
maybe a plastic bag got caught on your exhaust
what does it taste like?
That part of the exhaust is receiving a lot of heat from the cats, so it looks like it has a pretty high melting point?
As it heats up, it kind of looks a like it's slowly running down the exhaust before it burns off, kind of like ice cream on an ice cream cone.
You could rule out hitting something by scraping it off and see if it comes back.
If it regenerates or comes back, it's coming from somewhere on the truck.
You could also idle the truck at full operating temperature in your driveway for a while and look for drips. It's possible when your driving the wind is whipping the droplets from somewhere on your truck onto the exhaust?
I really don't have a clue, just guessing.
