Ever since I moved to a new city, I noticed that one of the pipes underneath my car is always scraping on the ground when exiting parking lot ramps, and when I drive on certain bumps in the road.
I thought it was just the poor roads of the new city I’m in, but then I noticed a really low exhaust pipe underneath my car.
I’m not sure if the pipe was always this low.
How careful should I be with this?
Can it be lifted?
'05 Camry
That’s definitely not the way that the car came off the assembly line. Was the exhaust pipe ever replaced?
Anyway, one or more of the exhaust hangers is likely disconnected or broken. You can probably reattach it yourself when the exhaust is stone cold, but if you don’t want to lie on the ground, I suggest that you take it to a mechanic.
Absolutely, that tail pipe is hanging way too low and hopefully it’s the hangers.
But more important, get it fixed ASAP because a hanger is a whole lot cheaper than an exhaust whole “rear end”.
The exhaust pipe was never replaced. I should be able to find one of these hangers online right?
How likely is it that the pipe already has an exhaust hole? This thing has been scraped a lot.
Unless you know what you’re doing, just go to an independent muffler shop with decent reviews, they’ll be able to tell you how much it’ll cost (shouldn’t be a lot unless there’s damage/rust) and get it fixed quick.
From your questions, I am going to advise you just take the car to an exhaust shop, probably exhaust hanger broke, either the rubber part or the metal part rusted out…
Unless your picture is really out of focus on the left rear tire or you need to have your tires checked, looks like very low tread, again could be out of focus…
Funny none of the car experts here mention this, but this is something I call “Toyota Exhaust Syndrome”. Your year Camry and some Lexus models had this problem from the moment they rolled off the assembly line. I’m not sure if there is a solution or even if you need one. But I have observed this problem on LOTS of Camrys.
Aren’t there car parts stores near you? That’s where I’d go. And without looking at your car we can’t know which parts it’ll need.
You need to crawl under there and take a look with a bright light. Then you will know what you need, if you can’t tell, then you need a muffler shop.
After replacing my cat, the rubber o ring hangers were more stressed and would break after a while. I always carried a few spares at 50 cents a piece from Napa.
I’ve mentioned this before, I noticed the pipe on my 03 Camry hung low since new and started looking at other Camrys on the road. They were all unusually low hanging. There was nothing wrong with mine, it was fabricated that way. It always bothered me they would build them like that purposely since it looked like they could have bent it differently for a better fit. But some things are done to make it easier to assemble. It may be that way by design to fit the assembled pipe onto the car easier. Before you go buying anything, look at other Camrys you see on the road. It might take a muffler shop to fabricate a custom pipe. Assuming yours doesn’t have a failed hanger- easy to spot.
Exhaust pipes from the factory don’t scrape the ground.
Tester
Maybe you should read the entire sentence-
RIF.
There are plenty of threads on this topic on various Toyota boards if you bother to look.
The Camry’s I’ve owned, and the Camry’s I’ve serviced over the years, not one dragged any part of the exhaust system on the ground, no matter the road condition.
Unless there was something wrong with the exhaust system.
Here’s the resonator pipe you can see hanging down.
And here’s the muffler it connects to.
The rod for the hanger next to the inlet has either rusted off, or the hanger has torn.
Tester
I have to agree, from that picture, the exhaust is way to low, Most of the shops I work at the last 17 years had inground lifts (I hate them) and if that was a normal Camry exhaust hanging that low, we would have ripped many Camry exhaust off…
One guys rack was up high enough that a stock ride height New Beetle was pulled in and caught the ripped the bumper cover off and took out the condenser and radiator and a few more things, cost the shop $$$$ in parts to repair… The same rack had hundreds of Camrys on it and never caught the exhaust…
Yes I have seen the OEM low Camry exhaust but not as low as the OP’s…
I stand by my 1st post, take it to an exhaust shop and let the professionals look at it… From the OP’s questions…
IIRC, Toyota uses a one piece exhaust system from the manifold back that includes the secondary catalytic converter and is very expensive, like around $3k at the dealer. When one component goes bad, there are aftermarket parts available and can be installed for a lot less money, even though that means cutting, clamping and/or welding.
I suspect that this system has been repaired by a less than stellar mechanic who did not bother to align all the parts properly before clamping or welding them.
I’m afraid that if welding was done, then you will have to go to a muffler shop to get it fixed properly. If it is clamped together and you have some mechanical skills, you may be able to fix this yourself, but I promise you that if U clamps were used, it is not going to be easy. It’s doable but not easy.
I concur the photo in the first post indicates some sort of problem w/the exhaust system. OP could visit a Toyota dealership and inspect similar cars on the lot there for comparison. Before getting overly gung-ho to move it higher, some caution is in order. Too high may be worse than too low, as too high may put the exhaust pipe too close to the floor pan and cause the floor to overheat.
I wonder how many Toyota dealers have an almost 20 year old Camry sitting on the lot? 
Tester
Have same car. Yes that was replaced at one time . Not enough rust on it for the age. Yes the exhaust hangs naturally low on those cars from the factory. I have the same car. But never ever had issues with it scrapping. I recently replaced the majority of the exhaust on this car .
Can you take picture from the front? I think I see problem. Kind of hard to tell, but it seems it’s not mounted in the center pipe were it’s supposed to be. Almost like the wire support things on the exhaust fallen off . Kind of hard to tell from the picture .
