‘He’s About To Go Places…Like To Heaven’: Man Spots Glowing Red Muffler On Highway, And It’s Worse Than You Think

A TikTok user recently went viral after filming a Toyota driving on the highway with a muffler glowing bright red underneath. The scary footage has people talking online about car safety and whether the driver should have been warned right away.

TikToker @riveracuts_ recorded the video from his own car after seeing the dangerous condition of the stranger’s car. The clip shows the Toyota’s muffler heating up to crazy hot temperatures, creating a red glow that could be seen from outside the car.

In the TikTok video, @riveracuts_ talked about how bad the situation was. “This man is heating up. He’s about to go places he don’t even want to go, like to Heaven,” he said in the footage. “That [expletive] about to blow up.” The post has gotten more than 511,400 views on TikTok.

That’s Not Supposed To Happen

A glowing red muffler is a serious warning sign that something is very wrong. It means the car’s exhaust system is getting way too hot. This happens when the engine is not burning fuel the right way, and all that extra heat goes into the exhaust system. One big reason is when there’s too much air and not enough gas mixing together. This bad mix makes things burn hotter than they should, heating up metal parts like the muffler until they glow red.

A lot of different car problems can cause this. Dirty air filters, broken fuel injectors, or bad oxygen sensors can all mess up how the fuel burns. Bad timing is another problem. When spark plugs fire too early or too late, fuel that didn’t burn can catch fire in the exhaust instead of inside the engine. This makes a ton of heat.

A blocked or broken catalytic converter can trap heat and make things even worse. Other issues like leaky valves, cracked parts, or a damaged flywheel can also put too much heat into the system. Even how you drive matters. Taking lots of short trips stops the exhaust from getting hot enough to burn off the junk that builds up inside. Over time, this makes temperatures go up even more.

Experts say driving with a red-hot muffler is really dangerous. The problem won’t go away on its own. Ignoring it could turn a fixable issue into something that costs a lot of money to repair or even cause someone to get hurt. Some viewers compared seeing a problem you can’t fix to situations like when a boss makes an annoying new rule for remote workers, where giving someone a heads-up could stop bigger problems later.

The video got a lot of reactions from people watching. Many wondered how the muffler could get that bad. “Like, how does that even happen?? I’ve never seen a muffler turn red,” one person said. Others thought the TikToker should have tried to warn the driver instead of just filming. “Try to warn them,” one viewer said, while another added, “We need a hand signal for yo something’s wrong with your car.”