Merry Christmas everyone.

Yesterday, I started smelling diesel exhaust fumes within the cabin,
and am wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

There are no unusual exhaust sounds, so I don't think there is a leak anywhere in the
system, but who knows. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Happy New Year.



D

 

HI, it sounds like you have a leaking injector seal. Take of the plastic engine cover, and look real close at the bottom of the injectors, if you have black gunk there, it is leaking.

Hope this helps.

Best regards
Hans-Petter

 

Hans-Petter, kick this around:

The first time we smelled the diesel exhaust smell was after I had pulled the plastic cover from the top of
the head and was driving it, especially when stopped at a traffic light or when traveling rather slowly.
Friends at our regular Monday night GTG (VW TDIs) have an interest in such
things, and I wanted to show them the complete exposed top of the motor.
Thought that was kind of funny, but I did not put the two actions together.
That is pulling the cover and the all-of-sudden smell.
Now, after your excellent suggestion, I checked, and sure enough, all around the number two
(2) injector, there's soot and I view that as evidence that you are indeed 'spot-on' correct!

Many thanks for the valueable 'tip'!

Love these forums.
Saved me a useless trip to some muffler shop to look for a small leak under the car.

Did you know that the 320 CDI diesels have two mufflers? Talk about overkill. I wonder what
it will sound like if I remove both of them?
Do you suppose there is any back-pressure in those mufflers?

Thanks again.



D

 

Hi again, glad to be able to help you.
You should get the leak fixed as soon as possible, if you drive with it, the injector will be a b... to remove. If you plan to do it yourself you should get a extractor kit, and a seat mill.

The car will be loud without the rear mufflers, and yes they are restrictive, put on some straight trough mufflers instead.

Good luck

HP

 

Does anyone know of a good reasonable local mechanic who can fix my leaking injector seal?

It must be someone who understands the problem and knows these CDI motors.

Don't want just any person who might 'think' they can fix it and screws up the head!

I'm in Southern California in Riverside County.
I hope to find someone nearby so as not to have to travel a great distance.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.



D

 

Not to say I doubt your advise, 'cause I do not!

But I was wondering how you might know this?

I just bought this car used, and I have no way of knowing how long this has been going on.
So the idea is that carbon builds up making the injector difficult to remove?

Where would I get an extractor kit, and a seat mill ?

I successfully removed the rear muffler on my 2002 Jetta TDI back when it was new, and while it was a slight bit louder outside,
it was not noticeable from inside because I angled the straight exhaust down at a 45 degree angle and made the tip exit
just past the leading edge of the bumper.
Did it help? Maybe it let the turbo spool up a little bit earlier? Who knows
Maybe it was all in my mind!

After I get that $0.95 cent injector seal replaced and the exhaust leak is fixed, I might try and run both the two sides straight
out the back angled down at a 45 degree angle after the bumper apron and see if the noise is to loud within the car cabin.
Bare in mind, I am not some young fellow, and the wife has sensitive ears.
I would love to reduce any back pressure if possible.
She never had any comments about what I did to the Jetta TDI back in 2002.
And with the increased power it had what with being chipped and PP520 injectors, it really ran well, although it would smoke
if you were giving it too much throttle. Someone figured it had 265 ft/lbs torque.
All I know is it would break the front wheels loose when you floored it from a dead stop.

Your thoughts please. Any ideas are appreciated.

Regards,



D

 

Hi, I wrench on cars all day long, I work at a small shop in Drammen, Norway. Here in Norway we have a lot of diesel cars, so I have replaced a lot of injector seals.
If you drive with a leaking seal the carbon deposits will fill the gap between the injector and the head. I still havent found a good chemical to remove/ dissolve this gunk, and as a result, you have to use a lot of force to remove the injector. Usually the injector survives, but now and then you have to replace it, and here in Norway, the injectors are expensive.

You can order the puller, and seat mill from Sealy.

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilde...iredresults=16

I would love to hear what you think of the noise, when you remove the mufflers.
I am planning to run a 3 inch pipe with a big straight trough silencer at the back on my car, together with a bigger intercooler, and a egr delete and a custom program.

By the way, sorry for the late reply, have been a bit bussy lately..

HP

 

Glad to hear from you no matter the delay. Good information is always appreciated and most welcomed.

We finally got that bad exhaust leak from the number two injector cured. In so doing,
the injector may have been harmed as it then sprayed raw fuel all over the motor.
In other words, we know that it did not survive.
Bought a brand new one from MBZ that cost plenty. I am simply glad I only needed that one.
We had exchanged the number two injector with the okay number one injector and the
'leak' moved with the 'bad' injector so we knew that that one was the problem.
Maybe it got cracked and that is what was causing it to leak raw fuel? Who knows?
I cannot see any crack, but it does leak, so . .
This was before I learned that I needed to get new 'stretch' bolts and how to properly
tighten and torque them, even though I had used new copper seals.
Everything as you most likelyalready know has to be done properly and in the correct order.

As to what caused that seal to fail in the first place, could it be because the engine was always
running cold because the thermostat was frozen (failed) in the wide-open position?

Replaced the entire thermostat housing and now it runs at 92 C instead of as low as 40 C.
I believe that one change raised my average fuel economy by several miles per gallon.
What do you think?

So all of that shot my limited budget for a little while, so we won't be doing any exhaust
changing for some time, but I will eventually. Not necessarily to 'raise the noise level'
but to gain (perhaps?) a little bit more performance?
There's got to be a little bit of back-pressure in those mufflers not to mention the weight of those two monsters?

BTW, which engine size do you have?

Again, thank you for all the information and keep any ideas and comments coming as they are indeed much appreciated.
I E How to disable the EGR without the check-engine light being triggered?



Derrel

 

This shows the power of these forums. This is an old post, a different model yet still relevant
My Merc is a 2007 CLK220, and has been as good as gold over the 5 - 6 years I have owned it. But now I too have the exhaust fume filled car. Not every time, but when I do its bad and the headache it produces is severe. It seemed to start right after its last service (a month ago), I dismissed as maybe a bit of spillage on a hot surface, that would eventually disappear: but it hasn't.
So in the morning, having read the above I will be looking hard at the injector seals. If it isn't they (or one of them); as the man said "I will be back"

 

Im not sure if yours is the same. I'm learning. Mine is a 04 e320. there's a strong gas smell from the driver side left passenger door. Kinda the same as his. Do we have a filter or something would cause this? Mine isn't in the cabin. Sounds like the same problem .

 

You may have a broken seal where the fuel sender, etc. go into the gas tank. MB has an extended warranty on that and you may qualify for a fuel tank replacement with senders and fuel pumps. Usually the smell is manifested when the tank is full-once it gets down a bit, no smell. Sound familiar in your situation?

 

Yours is a different problem I fancy. I don't detect a smell of diesel, just exhaust fumes: and then not every time I use the car (which isn't really that often). We drove some 50 miles yesterday, 20 or so each way, and all was fine; but having stopped to drop off as I drove the last half dozen miles home the atmosphere in the cabin deteriorated severely and quite quickly. At first as I was following a large tractor I put it down to his exhaust being drawn into the car, but he turned off and all stayed as poor!
The only difference was that the weather earlier in the day was good, as I drove home dusk was falling and the cold and mist building up. Relevant, I wouldn't have a clue
If there was a small leak in the exhaust pipe under the area of the cab, could that leak in? There is no body rot in the car, unlike the rust-buckets of the 60s/70s, but there are door seals of course
I checked the ignition seals this morning, the engine bay is fine, no build up of anything untoward anywhere
Perplexed to say the least ?????

 

Yes it does thanks much!!!!! Sorry didn't do a separate post.

 

Did ya find what it is? I understand driving behind tractors and big trucks that's everyday here but when not behind it goes away. Im new to but I know when the weathers bad theres more odor from other cars in my case. Im not much help but have seen the same. I cant find any leaks anywhere not sure why. Find out anything will let ya know.What model and year is yours? Mines a 04 e320 happy to send anything I can find. Did ya see my post? He told me about a seal might be my problem. Strong gas smell driver side left door. Mostly with a full tank. Goes away not full. Im perplexed to

 

I have a 2011 E350 cdi and i can smell like exhaust fumes coming through my air condition vents and when outside is cold or at night the smell is stronger, even if i turn off the air condition i can still smell it through the vents. i have to change the air condition filter every 2 to 3 months and the filter has the same smell on it, i,m wondering if Sgt3355 found out his problem or any one that can figure out this problem, i hate to drive this car because of this smell in the cabin, the car is doing 91000 miles. Awaiting your solutions Please Help !

 

Hello,
I think I read it all but did not find similar problem/solution in this thread, or anywhere else.
I have a W211T 220 CDI 2005. for 5 years now and last end of summer I noticed fume smell in the cabin after car being parked over night, but all that disappeared during the winter time and colder weather. This summer same thing started happening again, few weeks ago, only this time I can feel it when the car is parked shorter period of time now, and while driving the car I smell nothing at all. I checked injectors and they are fine, I hear no exhaust leak or rattle, no similar smells when sniffing around the engine or cabin filter.
There are cabin vents in the trunk, on both sides, and I tried to detect if the smell is coming from there since left one is pretty close to exhaust pipe end, but could not be sure if that is the case...I thought that if that is the case I would feel it during the ride but I am not sure, maybe pressure on those flaps is better when car is in motion. I might try to put the tape on that left one, I hope the right one will be enough to release the pressure from cabin during the door closing, I might leave some window a bit open while closing the door, just in case.
Any suggestions on what else could be the problem???
I will check that seal near fuel pump in the cabin, soon, since someone mentioned that possibility, and my fuel tank is rarely filled more than 15l ... and I will try to tape those left side trunk pressure release flaps.
Thank you!