If I set my climate control to get air from the outside I get this rich fuel smelling stank coming into the cabin at a stop. Most of the time I have to set the climate control to circulate the air inside the cabin.

It's like my charcoal canister is venting directly to my cabin!

The smell is not coming from my muffler end. I've checked.

Any ideas what could be wrong with my car?



[Modified by Edwin, 2:20 AM 10/17/2002]

 

I would say it is an exhaust leak somewhere...

 

what's your I/H/C/E setup? If you're not stock, I bet it's the connection between cat/test-pipe and b-pipe flange area.

 

Check the Battery!!!! No ****, my car was smelling like rotten eggs and people allways say it's a bad cat, etc.. Well i ended up finding out it was the battery. What was happening is that it wsa fucked up and it was pushing mad steam/smoke/air/somthing out the side of it. What was weird is that usually this kinda stuff happens when you charging system is fucked up but in my case my charging system was/is fine.

 

how many times did this happen? just once today? any other times? i'm almost sure its from something else... - not your car

 

Edwin, stop farting inside the car, when it is moving, the smell gets dissipated, but when you stop, it just hangs there ........just kidding,

Do you have a fuel leak anywhere? Check the lines coming from the fuel filter to the rail, see if you are leaking anywhere

 

That was my guess. Bad gas.

I'd check your header/cat and cat/exhaust bolts, as Cosworth said. May be an exhaust leak.

 

Exhaust leak at the cat sounds like a logical step to take. Thanks for the input guys.

The smell happens all the time, it's not the rotten egg (sulphur) smell, it's a rich gas smell. Probably coming from the header or catalyst.

I wonder how the exhaust shops find a leak? Do they listen or have a special device to detect a leak?




[Modified by Edwin, 2:58 AM 10/18/2002]

 

one simple way to try and detect an exhaust leak is to cover the exhaust opening with your hand then have someone else listen for hissing coming from the joints in the system.

is it burnt gas or raw gas you're smelling?

 

Sounds like an exhaust leak. If it were a fuel leak it would likely stink in motion as well as at rest.

 

Jack your car up, get someone to rev the motor while you look for leaks around the cat flanges.

 

Brought the car in to an exhaust shop. They couldn't find a leak, try even shaking the car on the hoist to find a leak at the flex pipe, but still they couldn't find a leak in the exhaust system.

I only smell the rich sweet fuel smell at a stop.

Any other ideas guys?

 

I'm having a similar problem. When I start up my car, or am at a stop I smell fresh gasoline. I looked at my fuel rail and it does seem that I have a leak somewhere. I don't know yet if it's a bad seal or thread somewhere but I'm going to get it fixed TONIGHT! I'd check you're fuel rail as well and see if you have any leaks coming from anywhere. Good luck

 

I was doing a search on the board.

Possibly a leaking injector or an injector o-ring seal. Don't know. But I did have a recent job on the head. I didn't have the problem before that.

 

Good Chance!

 

Brought it to the dealer last night. They couldn't find the source of the problem.

I have a cut valve cover and a B&M fuel pressure riser. Think this may be where the smell originates from?

 

I had the same problem for a day or two...but it went away. I think I just had gas on my shoes after stopping at a gas station.