21 replies to this topic

[Matt]

Right ill start from the beginning....

bought the car in march of this year. within the same month it got vandalised.. and i hadnt driven it that much...

it went away and got repaired...(bodykti and new paint etc)

but when driving away i smelt the familar smell of car fumes...
but carried on driving got it home.. and took it to the exhaust centre...
they couldnt see anything wrong with it

been back and forth to different garages at least 15 - 30 times. and then we found a 2 inch crack in the manifold.. so rather than mess around me and bristolminimad decided a full system would treat the car

this meant 180 quids worth of exhaust.. full system.. replaced all mounts.. all gaskets and all nuts and bolts.. even went as far as to change the studs on the head!

drove it around last night.. and assumed the smell i could smell would be the new exhaust heating off.. burning its protective layer and the paint giving off some fumes.
but as i dont have any bulkhead sound deadening.. it was quite bad in the car. but still smelt the same as before.
gave it a few good runs... let it cool..and then another few.. and its made no difference.. its exactly the same as before.. the same smell as before. Now anyone would assume that it isnt my exhaust making the smell but i dont know what could be!!!

ive looked underneith and in the engine bay and theres nothing smoking!

any ideas??

[Guess-Works.com]

battery cable melting on the exhuast ?

[ian]

Just an idea, not sure if it could happen, but whats the boot seal like? could the fumes be coming up and into the boot? i know if you drive with the boot on a hatchback open it fills the car

just a thought

[Matt]

battery cable melting on the exhuast ?

had previous problems with this before but had a new cable put in running a different route.

so its not the battery cable melting

[Matt]

Just an idea, not sure if it could happen, but whats the boot seal like? could the fumes be coming up and into the boot? i know if you drive with the boot on a hatchback open it fills the car

just a thought

doesnt have a boot seal at the moment but when it had a new seal put on previously it was still as bad..

but surely my boot boards would stop some of it

[Retro_10s]

check the little rubber pipe that goes to the fuel pump, and check the little rubber pipe that goes from the fuel tank to the main copper pipe.

[minipip]

did u get all the old manifold gasket off? as u may not have 2 smooth surfaces which the gasket isnt sealing properly, and u said u have put new studs on the head tighten them up again as they will need to settle in.

[Matt]

yeh old gasket had come away nice and easy as i only put the previous one on last week.. and there wasnt any remaining...

ill tighten down the manifold bolts once more..

what can i use to blank off the bulkhead from the cabin? anything i can stick down or spray on??

[Matt]

no more ideas?

[Retro_10s]

sorry mate, but if you can smell petrol, then check it out, don't just look for something to stick down or mask the problem,... fix it, clearly it wasn't the exhaust making the smell...

[Mephiston]

do you have any breathers on the engine? if so are they connected properly - just a thought

[Matt]

yep have an oil casing breather.. thats connected properly

but it doesnt smell like petrol.. :S

i guess ill have to have another look and see..
but failing that ill just have to do something to stop the smell over the weekend to get to smd?

[Mephiston]

could just febreeze the engine bay ?



(no dont, maybe the interior though >?)

Edited by Mephiston, 02 August 2007 - 04:04 PM.

[Phaeton]

Back to an idea I gave somebody a couple of weeks ago trying to find a leak in the Y of an LCB. Get some Redex & with engine running on fast tickover dribble Redex into carb. Have somebody put a rag over the end of exhaust & hopefully if you have a leak then the smoke will come out of it. If the car stalls with rag over end, then there's a good chance the exhaust is sealed & it's ot that. Other way of getting Redex in engine is to remove 1 plug & pour some down the bore, it will only run on 3 but hopefully smoke like hell.

Alan...

[Ethel]

Is the fuel tank vent pipe in place and running to under the car?

If it has a carb it's not flooding slightly?

Fuel pump ok?