Blueman33

When I drive my car I get a funky exhaust type of smell in the cabin. It is not a raw fuel smell at all, it's not exactly a full blown exhaust smell, and not exactly burnt oil. It's a "the cabin smells like the garage smell". Definitely a light 'burnt' smell.

It's appears to be coming through the vents, and it appears to be least strong with recirculate and coldest thermostat, the cold air doesn't smell much, but turn the thermo up to warm and it seems to smell a little more.

When sniffing the front engine bay the area on the side of the fuse box smelled exactly like the smell in the cabin. The area around the battery didn't smell nearly as strong. Oddly, the engine bay itself doesn't smell, but then again it's more open to air than the small confined area around fuse box.

Therefore, it seems like it's being pulled in from the engine bay on the side of the fuse box.

But a person's nose can play tricks after running around sniffing for funny smells. Maybe because i sniffed the fuse box side first it appeared to smell more, who knows?

The engine doesn't have any leaks, so not only is it a mystery as to how the smell gets in, but where it even comes from.

I cleaned out the area behind the firewall seal and can't find any grommets missing or holes.

rubber seal in engine bay seems fine.
hatch seal seems fine (it's water proof at least)

I am having my mechanic check the floorboard, shift boot, and for all grommets, but he said the exhaust is tight and there are no fluid leaks, so the source itself is in question.

I don't have much of a plan other than to maybe replace the engine seal, even though it looks fine, detail the interior of the car which has that smell, and keep recirculate button on and hope for the best. but that's not much of a plan. this has been nagging me for some time. I had every leak in the engine repaired at considerable cost.

I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S COMING FROM OR WHAT IT IS.

Has anyone found a mystery smell like this?

Is there anything that would deteriorate in a way to smell burnt?

Has anyone found something different than hatch seal, engine seal, hole in the tire well?

Thanks.

shiners780

Check all that fuel tank vapor purge plumbing that's located right up there next to the fuse box. Maybe you've got a hose that's come loose.

chris951

a bad charcoal canister can give off a fuel smell in the cabin as well

phils87951

If you smell exhaust, I would check the rear hatch seal before anything else. its most likelt seen better days.

mikebarton

had same problem, guy above me is right on.........check the rear hatch seal. the 944 the way the back is designed the exhaust get sucked up the rear to under spoiler then pushes out from the car. if hatch isnt closed fully or the seal sucks it will come into car, let me guess , you smell it most on hard accel???

eddieviv

aaaarggghhh I'm dealing with this same issue. Try taping off the holes in the bottoms of the two "cubbies" in the hatch, the hole at the bottom of the spare tire wheel well, tighten the hatchback down as much as you can by adjusting the two screws so it holds tightly, change the firewall seal even if it looks OK, and is your car running rich? Until you get that fixed you'll continue to be frustrated. Are you getting black soot out of the exhaust?

Blueman33

My firewall seal seams fine, and the thing is the engine is clean with no oil leaks or fluid leaks. I did clean out in the crevices of the area behind the firewall and the rear hatch seal seems fine.

since the engine is clean and i don't have exhaust leaks, I have come to the conclusion that it's an illussion it's coming from the vents, it must be coming from the rear exhaust and the vent blows it in my face. when you take a light exhaust smell add it to the funk that was behind the firewall and the funk of a 20 year old car interior, i think that's it. so the major focus is on the rear of the car, the exhaust.

AND i notice when i drive in the rain there is no smell. i drive like a turtle in the rain.

I am having the mechanic check to see if the hatch itself is setting correctly. But when i open my hatch, it's like glued, i have to pull the hatch up, so i don't see that as being the culprit. I am thinking maybe it's coming in a tail light.

as far as smoke. i have none except when the demons come around. about twice since i owed the car i would start up the car and it put out white blue smoke for a long time, like 3-4 minutes of white cloud. neither time could it be replicated in the shop. this is because my car is haunted.

a flagman at the track said he could see a puff of smoke on my shifts but no smoke otherwise, i had everything checked and nothing could be found to be wrpng.........haunted.

I will be getting my car back this week. I am going to detail the inside so there is no hint of funksmell and then go from there.

jacklet

if you have to pull the hatch up one of your latches is off lt or rt it also isn't locking all the way down hence your smell-have your mech make sure the latch part is functioning correctly and the latch pins are adjusted correctly i bet one side is off. see if when it's closed one side has play in it

87944turbo

I had this problem with mine. The bias valve was leaking around the o-ring (circled) and was dripping (arrow) down onto the exhaust and burning off, so I did not have any puddles anywhere. This made it really hard to track down. I thought this might be a possibility since you mentioned it was stronger near the fuse box. The brake fluid burning off definitely has a unique smell it.

KuHL 951

Probably unrelated but when I recharged the AC on the BMW last night I got what looked like very light smoke or fog at first coming out of the vents when I turned the AC on the first time. I'm thinking that I might have a slight leak at the evaporator making a very strange odor like burnt ozone or something. The AC works fine so maybe our hot weather has caused some sealants to drip or something. It wasn't an exhaust or fuel smell, something very different.