On the passenger side of the exhaust, it must have got hot because it burned the paint right off. The driver's side is fine. I'm wondering what could have caused this? i don't want to repaint the bumper until I figure out the cause. has anyone seen this before?

 

My guess is that there was raw fuel in the exhaust plumbing, it got lit and there was a flame waifing up off that tailpipe.

Do you have a CEL or any DTCs?

 

No there are no CEL or DTC codes. when I drive the car im generally pushing it pretty hard. it's curious why one side would do it and not the other.

 

Aftermarket exhaust?

 

That's always a concern to have body panels close to the exhaust. One of the reasons I'm glad I have an earlier F-Type. That being said, a few things you can look at:

1. Take a look at how the exhaust is mounted. You can see if you can lower it a bit to get a bit of distance from the valance.
2. You can also see if you can push out the exhaust tips a little further out from the valance.
3. When it's repainted, make sure the shop does something heavy duty
4. You can also look at some paint protection in that area. When I used to own a 3rd Gen RX7, they had a CF part that would be stuck above the exhaust an secured with 3M tape to keep the paint from burning from the exhaust. I haven't seen anyone do it on an F-Type, but it's an option.

 

Over the years I’ve learned to utilize my after-burners only upon special occasions.

And I am not, of course, making light of your situation—so you will please excuse me for a little levity. Good luck!

 

I assume it is no longer under warranty??

 

has the valance been painted? if its not factory paint that could be the reason why.

 

Yep, that is a heat burn.
So that particular exhaust tip is getting very hot and/or the exhaust gasses themselves are excessively hot on that side.
Also the deposits on the insides of the exhaust tips look rather grey to me whereas on my car they are very black.
Putting those two things together suggests to me that the engine is running lean especially the RHS bank.
Get a good OBD2 scanner on it and see what it says.

 

Running stupid lean, I would boroscope the cylinders and look for damage to the pistons and cylinder walls. I've burned down a two smoke running lean but never a four stroke, I'd bet dollars to donuts he has some spark plugs that are white.

 

With no codes, blocked fuel injectors or a faulty oxygen sensor falsely sending the ECU a rich condition would be my guess. Each bank of cylinders has 2 oxygen sensors that is why one side and not the other, each bank has one sensor up stream of the cat and one downstream of the cat.

 

Actually six O2 sensors on an F-Type, three each side.
One upstream before the cat, one "mid-stream" in the middle of the cat (the cat is a twin element version with this mid-stream O2 sensor plonked between the two elements) and one downstream (after the cat).

 

Good afternoon Oz, always learning something new about my F-Type in this forum
I don't think any of my GM vehicles have ever had any more than two per cylinder bank, leave it to the Brits to complicate things further

IMO one of those sensors is erroneously reading a rich condition, I also think that I would put the car on a hook if I wasn't going to tear into it in my own garage, no sense risking a drive anywhere.

 

Yep, it's early afternoon here in sunny Adelaide!
I don't even know what that mid-stream O2 sensor does, gotta do some research, maybe it's in the workshop manual.
Edit - checked the workshop manual, no help. It has instructions how to remove that sensor and it calls it the "catalyst monitor sensor" (whatever that means!) but that's it.

 

8:41 PM here and it's been dark since 4:30ish.....the winter solstice, yeah I know summer in Oz

I'm thinking that mid-stream O2 sensor is just a fine tune on the fuel map to keep emissions down,with no codes it just becomes a crap shoot on what sensor to replace unless you start reading the sensors resistance, here in the US you can get a set of four O2 sensors for a GM for about $125.00, if I'm the one creeping underneath the car they're all getting replaced cause I'm not farting around with an ohm meter while on my back eating road dirt LOL

 

The paint is factory. When the car had about 10k miles on it I did have an O2 sensor on that side go bad and it was replaced. I will definitely have this theory checked out.

 

If you have a bad O2 sensor it will set a code. No need to fart around with a DVOM under the car. He has no codes so don't throw parts at it.
If it was running lean - it will set a code. Again he does not have any codes.

Until we can get a better diagnosis I am not sure anything is wrong with your car?
Can you check again for any codes? Looks like it should be telling us something?
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im going to warm it up and measure the exhaust temps. i will say i did notice this after running at very high speeds

 

Looking at that exhaust I don't think there is any question that the car is running lean, but I could be wrong. No codes, lean condition, what can it be?