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exhaust smell inside while accelerating

11K views 37 replies 8 participants last post by  TennOdy 
#1 · (Edited)
2012, started about 3 weeks ago when the sunroof was open, now it is all the time even when it is closed. Van has like 36k on it and we have the certified warranty so 48k i think.I plan to make an appointment at the dealer, but anyone else have this issue? Just curious as to what it was/what they fixed so maybe I can try and steer then in the right direction when they tell me they can't duplicate it (sorry zero trust in any dealer of any brand)
 
#4 ·
Complain again, louder and higher up if you need to. You should never get exhaust smell from your own car. It's a safety issue as you could get intoxicated. At the very least it could impair your reflexes and increase your risk of having an accident. If it wasn't important, no manufacturer would bother with all that piping to bring the exhaust to the rear of the car...
 
#6 ·
The fact that it happens only when you accelerate hard leads me to believe it's simply an exhaust leak somewhere. More exhaust pressure when accelerating = bigger leak. They simply haven't looked hard enough to find it. I expect it will slowly get worse over time, becoming easier to find.
 
#7 ·
we dropped it back off this morning and I convinced them to do drive another used '12 we they just received on trade in. suprise suprise, no exhaust smell at all, even hard acceleration with the sunroof in vent like on ours.......

service manager "huh, this is going to take us a while to figure out"

so i guess we will see what they come up with. could be a cabin exhaust vent stuck open allowing engine exhaust to enter the cabin, or a leak as you suspect. my only problem with it being an engine exhaust leak is none of the usual telltale ticking sounds are audible
 
#10 ·
They just told us it is the gas we use and we need to use premium. Oh BTW we used a lot of your gas and we aren't going to buy you any either. So eff you.

I hate dealers, why did I even bother to buy a vehicle with warranty when I am going to end up fixing this myself?

Thanks for the diagram, is that vent under the bumper cover. And is it accessible w/o removing the cover? I can do that but would be nice to just give it a quick look rather than 2 hours of work. Plus I am leaving for a month so my wife is Sol I guess if I don't get this fixed by Friday :(
 
#27 ·
The suggestion was probably in reference to the 'rotten egg' cat converter smell, which is not indicative of a healthy converter. But it seems like the sunroof is left open a lot when driving. This probably would create negative pressure in the cabin causing it to suck the exhaust fumes in. Try glass closed/fan on as above.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Trust me, I know!

Did some test driving tonight, strong 35+ mph crosswind from the west. Driving south (wind from right) strong exhaust smell. Diving north (wind from left) very very little exhaust smell.

So the vent on the left side being stuck open theory has strong merit IMHO. There is zero evidence they looked at that even though they said they did. Car is dirty, no finger prints underneath, none of the push pins have been touched. I don't see how they could have checked it

I also tested rear air on/off, no change, main air on/off no change. The smell originates in the rear for sure.

The whole point of a newer car (CPO used, 25k miles when we bought it) is to not have to deal with crap like this or have to fix it myself if something happens. Argh, so frustrating.

Do I need to buy a CO detector to prove that this is unsafe for my wife & 4 children to drive?
 
#14 ·
they must think because they say so then it must be? i know a few people who take what a dealership tells them as gospel over what the owners manual says, absurd!

anyway, i have 2 of those cabin vents coming tomorrow from a different dealer, so tomorrow afternoon i plan to swap them. if it fixes the smell, when the next level higher up honda corporate person calls me tomorrow, i will let them know i have solved my own problem and ask for some compensation. I hope the dealer gets dinged too! only real convenient dealer for us to go to as well, so that sucks. not lucky enough to have more than 1 in a town around here and most are seperated by at least 80 miles, averaging 150 miles apart.
 
#17 ·
Well.....

As I suspected the dealer didn't inspect the cabin exhaust vents, the pax side one wasn't even installed, just wedged between the bumper cover and frame... For the life of me I can't figure out how exhaust was getting in :/

Just under an hour of my time and this issue is solved. Entire cover doesn't have to be removed, just the screws in the fender well (and splash guards) you can get at them very easily just by releasing the tabs that hold the cover on the side. If I had known that would have been like 15 minutes to replace both.

I did replace both, because they were special order and couldn't be returned anyway.
 
#20 · (Edited)
here are the pics, the cleaner/whiter one is the drivers side and it also has squished foam insulation. the pax side is dirty inside and out, and was stuck on a round peg under the hole it should have been clipped into, which is why it has the nice dent.

there really isn't any way for these things to get stuck open, so unless it falls out which is also unlikely because i needed a prybar to remove the drivers side, there isn't much reason for them to fail.

i'm not quitting with honda corporate until i get a check for gas and parts.
 

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#23 ·
I think I am going to stick a CO detector in the back and see.

Other than lift gate seal which looks great and body flexing and the vent popping back out (maybe? Long shot) there really isn't anywhere else in the back for exhaust to enter back into the cabin that I can think of.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Not a bad theory, but the Vin sticker inside the rear bumper cover matches, the gaps looks even, and from what I saw of the frame there is no evidence to support that. And it was CPO. And it started nearly 3 months after we bought it. Can't be 100% ruled out though.

What would be the easiest way to test that seal?
 
#26 ·
I guess ride back there and listen for sounds of an air leak. You might even feel it. BTW, what is 'CPO'?
Is the exhaust tip exactly where it's supposed to be? If the car was backed into an obstacle and the tip was pushed up, it could defeat the design and facilitate exhaust getting into the car. Do you always have all glass closed, with the HVAC blower 'on' and outside air selected?
 
#28 · (Edited)
Tweaked the little rubber stoppers today, it helped, but didn't totally fix the issue. So maybe if I get home early enough tonight I might try moving the latch catch in just a tiny amount.

Nothing else looks out of place, we got a vehicle with sunroof so we could drive with it open, not to never use it.

And yes, if I sat back there I could hear an air leak, but that was before when the cabin pressure vent was not even installed.

CPO = certified pre-owned. So came with 4yr/48k warranty and 6yr/100k powertrain
 
#29 · (Edited)
Did some serious looking at the tailgate, it is shifted to the right about 1/16". All Vin numbers match, so maybe someone dinged it but was never reported, or just wasn't installed straight from the factory (my guess). So need to either try to get dealer to realign it or figure out how to do it myself, should be in the body repair manual, right?

If I have the dealer do it, it is going to be because Honda corporate told them too. I dont need more excuses and waste more of my time on this. Also don't need more incompetent people messi g it up worse

At this point too, it isn't happening 100% of the time anymore either, maybe only 33% of the time so I have made progress and getting the tailgate realigned should I think clear up the rest.
 
#32 · (Edited)
i'm not saying it wasn't, but if it was they did a damn good job of hiding it from every tracking source, and all the metal looks flawless. I looked under it prior to purchase as well. the outside of both vents were equally dirty.

how can i find out for certain if it was in an accident?

we might just take it to a competent body shop and see if they can realign the tailgate.
 
#31 ·
Take a dollar bill and close the lift gate on it all around to see if there's a place or places where you can pull it out easily.
The reason I suggested closing all the glass while driving was to allow you to safely drive the car until you find the problem.
You should resist getting testy with the responses you asked for when you posted the problem. We're all shooting in the dark here and offering many possibilities, most likely one of which will be the answer.
 
#33 ·
not trying to "get testy", just frustrated, especially when my dealer is incompetent, plus i just left on a 4 week long trip for work so, can't do anything else about it until i return. for now my wife is just driving with the sunroof closed. it doesn't do it when the regular windows are open i assume due to more positive pressure inside so the fumes can't come in.
 
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