How stinky is your heat especially when not moving?

[alf]

Happens to me every Winter. The heat smells like exhaust especially when i am not moving. Anyone else have this problem and how did you fix it?

[Strugs]

Hmm - I noticed I also have stinky heat, but it is not an exhaust smell - I think I spilled some gear oil on my heat exchangers when I changed my tranny fluid a few weeks ago. My heat smells like the most nasty toxic chemical dump you can imagine.

Nice car by the way. Mine was recently deported from Seattle to Canada. Maybe they used to hang out back in the 80's.

[slodave]

Originally posted by alf
Happens to me every Winter. The heat smells like exhaust especially when i am not moving. Anyone else have this problem and how did you fix it?

Have you checked your heater hoses? If they are torn, exhaust gasses could get in. Also, the car has been in a wet climate. Your HE's could be leaking. Exhaust smells in a closed cabin are a bad thing.

Dave

[Walter_Middie]

Stinky heat will happen if you have leaking oil burning on a hot surface, or exhaust leaks. Then the stinky air is sucked into the heat exchangers through the poor fitting sheet metal around the exhaust - especially when the car is not moving. You might try getting under there with some high temp silicone and sealing up some of the air leaks - or like someone mentioned above, check the flexible hoses for tears and repair them or replace them.

[Gearbox]

I agree, most likely you have some pin holes rusted through the tubes inside your heat exchanger or your getting oil dripping in. If it's an oil smell, check for leaks. If it's a CO2 smell. Either take them out, carefully cut off the heat exchanger shrouds and examine and repair, or replace the heat exchangers, or forego heat. Not a good thing to have CO2 leaking in the cockpit. I suggest keeping the windows cracked open until you resolve the problem, Good luck Allan

[Bill in OKC]

I read on another thread that the exhaust from the tailpipe(s) can get drawn in through the vent over the engine and then the engine fan will just blow it on through when the car is stopped. - and I guess if the wind is just right.

[Head416]

Bill, I was wondering about that.
Isn't the intake for the heater just a two or three feet away from the exhaust? Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong part, I'm a newbie. I get a bit of a smell when stopped but I had just attributed the smell to that proximity. Now I'm wondering if I need to look into a problem.

[Rot 911]

Buy a CO detector with a battery back up and put it in your car to find out if it is oil you are smelling or if you are getting CO in the cabin.

[kucharskimb]

i go along with bill. when my car was running excessively rich, even the face of my engine fan was covered with soot and the smell in the cabin with the heat on was noxious. since it has been leaned out, it is much better. i have one of the CO detectors. i'll have to try it next time i'm out...

if you want to troubleshoot this, simply idle the car in the driveway with an electric fan blowing the exhaust away from the car. or duct it away with some corrugated drain tubing...

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

You can get inexpensive passive CO detectors--no batteries, just a CO-sensitive spot that turns dark in the presence of the gas--at Aircraft Spruce, Wicks, or any airport that has a GA population. It's just a small plastic card that you can affix anywhere in the car, ideally near a heater outlet. You do have to replace them every so often, but one would certainly work well as an immediate do-I-have-a-leak detector

[LakeCleElum]

I'll trade you problems. Mine heater smells like dead mice. About a year and half ago, I was up to about 60 when I turned on heater. A putrid smell emitted and then little pieces of fur flew into the face of my passenger.

Funny, he has since declined to ride with me unless I drive my truck! The smell is getting better, but there's still a trace of it....

[rlh930]

If oil has leaked into your heat exchanger (the most likely cause of the smell), e.g from a leaking oil return tube or from any number of other possible sources, you will have a devil of a time getting rid of it. You can stop the leak but the smell will not go away quickly. Your best bet is to remove the heat exchangers and clean them somehow. You will be amazed at the amount of oil that will drain out. If you can't take them to some place that cleans industrial parts, maybe you can wash them out at a coin-op car wash