Fumes In Cabin - 4 Garages Have Said The Car Is Perfect

[hen00]

Hi There

I'm really really hoping someone can help. I have now spent the last two months going back and forth to garages to try and fix the fume smell coming into my car. Its giving me severe headaches! and i have to keep all the windows right down to prevent me feeling ill. I have asked 4 different garages to check everything but no one can find anything wrong at all i have even tried two mercedes specialists. There is a tiny gearbox leak underneath but they said it would'nt cause smell?

The car is a w203 c220 cdi 2002 estate.

When i purchased the car it had some smell from injectors when stopping at traffic lights. I have had new seals on the injectors and one of the injectors replaced and then the smell was perfect!!
The next thing that happened was that the fuel line started letting in air at the fuel pump. This was when the latest smell came on. When the fuel lines were replaced to fix the turnover problem the smell has not gone away but there is no diesel or injector smell just what i can think of maybe exhaust or oil ?
The engine has also been steam cleaned and looking perfect but this has not helped anything..

Any Ideas Please...I really cant keep driving with this smell and will be forced to give the car away.......

 

[roop_the_loop]

My wife had one of the mk.1 A-class diesels, and in the last year or two of its life it also developed the same sort of fuely/oily fumes. And you may not want to hear this, but despite two MB garages and our local one looking into it, nobody could figure out where it was coming from!

The main suspect seemed to be the pre-heater unit (whatever its real name is). It's apparently a small diesel burner, and is there to provide heat for the cabin ventilation system on cold starts before the engine heats up. Although to be honest I don't know how close to the mark that suspicion was, because they still couldn't find anything wrong with.

In any case, completely different car of course, and I don't even know if yours has the same sort of pre-heater? But thought I'd throw that into the pot all the same...

 

[television]

Is it possible to identify exactly what the smell is

 

[Roxie]

Difficult when I can't see or smell it myself but you could try looking for smoke / vapour with a torch in the dark or shade. Have a look at the underside of the inlet manifold the port shut off flaps can wear.
If it only smells when traveling and it is exhaust type fumes then have a look at the boot door seals, if they are torn then the vacuum at the back of the car will pull the exhaust fumes into the cabin. Is the pollen filter clean or is it blocked with soot?

 

[Xtractorfan]

I would get the injector seals checked again, just to be sure..you can spray some wd40 or similar around them to see if they are leaking

 

[grober]

Other possibility is that the aircon drainage channels are blocked which allows stagnant water to collect- this allows bacterial growth which can lead to very unpleasant smells with any ventilation air flow. An Aircon specialist can cure it by fumigation if its that.

 

[Uncle Benz]

Have your battery checked too. A boiling cell can vent bad fumes, and the battery is directly underneath the pollen filter heater intake on w203 C class

 

[hen00]

hi all thank you for the quick reply's.

well the smell isn't diesel as i had some fuel leak doing the fuel lines and this smell went after a few days, all 4 injectors have been tested again with soap water around the base and no bubbles whatsoever. i also put my nose to the exhaust at back of car and it doesnt smell like that i think its an oily smell but hard to say never had any smell issues with a car before :/
cant see any smoke or vapour but the smell fills the engine bay when opening the bonnet its there after a journey. i have also tried driving with all of the air flow completely off but the smell still seeps in somehow. i have put a brand new carbon filter in a week ago and that made no difference.

theres no smell coming from the battery area its mainly from the left and rear of the engine compartment
will check the boot seal tomorrow and see if i can find anything there..

 

[television]

Get an air con cleaner from Halfords, a few pounds well spent

 

[star]

Has anything been spilt in the car? Or food that has rolled under seat? Seems strange that others cannot smell it. Perhaps you could leave it with a garage for a longer road test, maybe overnight allowing someone to use it?

 

[mattkh]

I have asked 4 different garages to check everything but no one can find anything wrong

When they had the car, did they smell the smell?

is a tiny gearbox leak underneath

Clean the gearbox oil and drive the car to see if the smell is still there.

 

[hen00]

hi there
i am thinking the trans oil might indeed be causing the smell as from reading online this does smell really bad..i think the next thing to try will be to replace the leaking seal on the trans and wipe down and see if that helps..

the garages said that they can really smell anything specific even after test drives etc but then they may be too used to the car smells and its not a very specific smell e.g. like coolant or diesel

 

[Wheeler3108]

We have a constant problem with fumes in the cabs of th ambulances. All on the sprinter 3ltr v6 engine. Apparantly a cracked egr casing allows exhaust gasses to enter the cab.

 

[hen00]

have now checked all door/boot seals and they are all fine..EGR is also all good and i have recently cleaned it so there is not black soot in there either...hoping the new seal to stop trans leak later in the week will help otherwise out of ideas

 

[television]

Why not as has been said get an cleaner for the heater /aircon, these cause the worst problems with smells

 

[hen00]

hi again,
well as i said the air system itself doesnt have any smell to it, what im smelling in the car is the smell thats in the engine bay after the car is warmed up . if i turn the ignition on and turn the ac up it has the usual nice fresh air con kinda smell but this soon goes as the engine bay warms it seeps inside :/

 

[Frontstep]

The seal around the steering column or any other bulkhead seal ?
Does the car sound a bit noisier ?

 

[television]

The seal around the steering column or any other bulkhead seal ?
Does the car sound a bit noisier ?

I have known that boot to come off on a 210,, but not on a 203 but no reason why it could not be that

 

[hen00]

no the car is still really quiet and because the smell comes through the blower despite a new carbon filter as well as through the dash if air flow off and even through drivers side window its that penetrating so i still think theres something wrong in the engine bay..

 

[Frontstep]

Those carbon filters are very good at filtering smells.
Perhaps something isn't seated properly and its getting past.