Noxious Smell, 98 S70

Post by **jblackburn** » 17 May 2009, 19:57

So as I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic today (and ONLY at a complete stop) I noticed a REALLY bad smell coming through the air vents. It was cool outside, so my A/C was not running at the time, and I had been doing pretty steady interstate driving for 2 hours until then. I'm sure it was not coolant-related smell or anything...to be honest, when I would come to a stop, it kind of smelled like when you blow out a candle, only REALLY strong...with a slight oily smell to it.

I have noticed this smell once or twice before, but thought nothing of it, and thought that it was coming from other cars around me, but today I am convinced that it was definitely coming from my car. I rolled down the window and turned off the vents and did not smell anything...did not see any smoke, and eventually was able to pull over at a rest stop and check under the hood with it running, and did not smell anything other than typical hot engine smells. The oil was fine, and the engine appeared to be running perfectly normal, and I didn't see anything smoking. Turned the car off, and once I was back in traffic for like 5 minutes, the smell was back again. It didn't come back in the driveway at home after I let it idle for about 5 minutes, I still didn't smell anything. Does anyone have any ideas of things I should check? The PCV system has a little positive pressure...not much puffing at all, but there is some, and I know that needs to be taken care of at some point. Could it be this? An exhaust leak? ANY suggestions of things to check would be greatly appreciated.

Checking around some more, transmission fluid (!) was brown (any ideas why? - 2 months ago it was red in color), so I'll try to drain and re-fill that this week since I don't know if it has ever been flushed before (good idea?)

Post by **vegasjetskier** » 18 May 2009, 10:15

Maybe wiring or a piece of plastic (or plastic bag?) blowing up against the exhaust while driving?

Post by **jblackburn** » 18 May 2009, 11:33

It honestly smells more like an engine smell than melting plastic; I've had a bag stuck on a car before and it didnt smell anything like this. I just can't figure out where it would be coming from that it would only be pulled through the air vents and I can't smell it anywhere else...because it's a very strong smell.

Btw, I don't know if this has ANYTHING to do with it, but the first time I smelled it a month ago, I had been pretty hard on the gas and then come to a stop shortly after...yesterday I came off a cloverleaf merge and had to run my car up to the redline to get into traffic.

jfl2nd · Post by **jfl2nd** » 20 May 2009, 14:13

I have an 850 with a bad smell, and it turned out to be a rodent. The only cure was megadoses of air freshener into the fan intake.

Post by **jblackburn** » 20 May 2009, 14:35

LOL well I'm certainly hoping it's not a dead rodent in there anywhere!

In the past two days, I have changed the oil over to synthetic (WOW what a difference! - the car runs SO much more smoothly, and the engine feels like it has loosened up and enjoys revving more), reinstalled my air guide, and flushed my dirty transmission fluid.

SO FAR I have not noticed the smell again - I'm going to try to get the spark plug cover off tomorrow and take a look and see if there's much oil under it, and try to look at some of the plugs out of curiosity. I'm wondering if one of the turbo pipes has a slight leak in it after it boosts that is allowing some exhaust to direct into the inside air intake vents - I will check that out as well. Would spraying carb cleaner around the turbo cause the car to surge like a bad vacuum line would?