Exhaust Fumes in car causing carbon monoxide poisoning!!!

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1bigmac

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Hi Guys

I have a 57 plate A4 Avant 2.0tdi 170bhp, i have just got back from hospital after suffering a dose of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Now and again, you can smell exhaust fumes in the car, but it is normally my wife that notices it more than me, and it does seem to be worse when you first start her up.

Have any of you lovely chaps got any idea how the exhaust fumes could be getting into the car?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
 
check seal on the boot lid
my old vant had that problem
 
Thanks for that bez, much appreciated

I tried to fob the wife off, telling her it must be the exhaust blowing back to by the air intake, so that does sound feasable.

But when i had the poisoning i'd been on motorway journeys for 2 days running, and both nights when i got in a felt like i had the worst case of man flu ever!!! After a trip to A & E the comfirmed my suspisions of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, they say it can gradually build up inside your body untill it reaches dangerous levels.

So, although the boot lid seal could be leaking, i can't see it blowing in there whilst i was doing 70 on the motorway.

I am wondering if there is any seals or gaskets near to the engine in the exhaust system, that if were leaking would blow to near where the air intake is for the cabin heaters. I don't even know where the air intake is for the cabin heater.
 
id personaly have a good look under the hood whilst on the drive look hear and smell for area then narrow down you can also spray arosol in the airea and see it blow if it is leaking from area you spray. as to be fair it could be any of the exhust/manifold/turbo gaskets. hope you get it sorted and sorry to hear off your unplesent experiance not expected on a 57plate surely not good
 
Thanks Jay, i'll have a good look when i feel better, still feeling like garbage!! or i may ask my mate to have a look at it tomorrow.

Thanks again mate
 
Don't rule out the boot seal, the aerodynamic effect is not quite how you'd expect it to be. It's not like the wind blows the fumes away, the air is sucked back onto the car at that speed, due to the vacuum caused by it. It actually gets worse the faster you go. Hence why it may affect you more after being on the motorway.
****** hell, how much of a geek do I sound!!!!
 
Yep as above, even at 70 air gets drawn into the boot due to the aerodynamics. Same reason the rear ends up properly black when driving in the rain.
 
yes check the rear,years ago I drove a renult 5 with a load in the back the hatchback was not shut fully and after 5 miles I was feeling quite sick with the fumes.
 
Thanks very much chaps for all your help, the tailgate seal will definately be the first port of call!
 
audi upgrades
Hi guys , I'm getting strong smells of fumes when I'm driving and put the windows down in my Audi a4 170 saloon. Also when windows are up sumthing don't feel right. Like a trickle of fumes coming from sumwhere. A mechanic told me that my turbo maybe leaking. Would this be the cause. The smell of fumes when standing behind car also don't smell right very string fuel smell . I'm getting normal mileage full tank gets me 540 miles. Can anyone help
 
Honda had a problem with the last model 2.2 accords, cracked manifold causing it, strong fumes in cabin. Worth a look.
 
I have a similar promlem, 2007 A3, checked the exhaust right up to the DPF and it al seems fine, although I can't see one side but I need to strip off the air box and intake to see the EGR pipe which I believe can split anyway and should be able to see the other side of the DPF then. I have replaced all the rubber seal round the engine bay and as far as I am concerned there should be nothing coming through but we still get fumes which seem to be coming through the heater vents.
 
Not so experienced with this kind of issue. But perhaps it's worth going over with a CO detector to try and pinpoint the source of where it is the entering the cabin? Although not sure how accurately it will pick it up, I would think it's measured in either a percentage or PPM (Parts Per Million).

Good luck with this, sounds quite unpleasant and I hope you're feeling better too mate.

Azeem.
 
What kind of Co detector would you use? I thought about a normal domestic one which would tell you if levels were too high in the cabin but is there anything that would pinpoint where it is coming from?
 
I had this with a diesel mercedes. Turns out it was one of the injectors (hope I'm using the right term) was loose.
This was causing fumes from the engine to be pulled into the cabin via the AirCon system.

If you open the bonnet with the engine running does it sound really bad when you rev it? Mind sounded awful.
 
I'm experiencing similar problems in my A3. Strong smell when stationery or in very slow moving traffic... Seems alright though when driving at speed.
 
I've had my Audi A4 2.0 tdi 170 for nearly 2 months. It's going back in to the garage I bought it from for some work on the tensioner and belt.

I've recently noticed this smell mainly when I first start the car. I've mentioned this to the garage and it's booked in on Wednesday and I've asked them to have a look at this problem too while they have the car back. But what do I ask them to check?

I don't trust them one bit but because the car is still under warranty I have to send it back to them unless I pay someone else to do the work.

I have already taken the car to Audi for a free health check and everything came back fine apart from the tensioner. (Which the garage I bought the car from had checked and said was fine)

I noticed the other day the car started making a loud air noise. When I checked under the bonnet the air box looks like it's not on properly. Could this be the cause of the smell?

I really need to get this sorted ASAP as I have a 2 month old baby who I will not put at risk if I think something is faulty on the car and also the warranty runs out at the end of February.
 
Lia, was that the V belt ( auxilliary belt, serpentine belt or whatever they call it ) and the tensioner. Do you mind me asking how many miles your car has done?

Thanks
A
 
I don't think mine's the injectors. The smell was there whan we bought the car and it was back at Audi after that for the injector recall and the smell is still there, so even if they didn't notice it, changing the injector should have by default fixed the problem.
I will have a look at detectors, that one looks good but it does say it's been discontunued. We were talking about this last night and thinking plumbers muct ahve something for looking for leaks in Heating systems, maybe something similar they use so worth pursuing. What I did do with the exhaust, sounds daft but most people seem to think it will be and exhaust leak and you just can't find it, I covered sections with Cif bathroom mousse, then got someone to start the engine, any leaks should blow the mousse off but I never saw a thing move, have blockled the tailpipes and everything, nothing found. It's hard to get in everywhere and as soon as you put it on it starts to turn back to liquid but really any kind of mousse should to the same thing so there may be a better kind, was only £1.49 from Semi-Chem, so wirth a punt. Theory was, just rinse it off after with water, worst that can happen is I clean it :)
 
Molnboman said:
Lia, was that the V belt ( auxilliary belt, serpentine belt or whatever they call it ) and the tensioner. Do you mind me asking how many miles your car has done?

Thanks
A
Click to expand...

It's the alternator belt. It's been split in 2 by a damaged tensioner pully. The cars done 124k, full Audi service history and one owner. It's always been serviced at the right time and any work has always been done by Audi until Newmarket motor company got it.
 
Lia said:
It's the alternator belt. It's been split in 2 by a damaged tensioner pully. The cars done 124k, full Audi service history and one owner. It's always been serviced at the right time and any work has always been done by Audi until Newmarket motor company got it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, Yeagh just had a full Monty belt service done using Gates parts on my bus today and the tensioner was shot..and I think it was the original @ 223,000kms now.....running like a swiss watch now....what a difference. 7 hrs labour though....Jaysus H Christ....need to start saving the beer tokens up for this invoice!

BR
Allan
 
Hi,
I had the same issue with my 2007 a4 tdi 170 s-line estate.It was worse when you opened the window which my other half would do when she could smell the fumes.I traced it to the pin on the boot latch being bent forward after years of holding the tailgate closed.If you pushed on the tailgate it would move in & out (only slightly) but that was enough.When the window is opened it creates a pressure drop in the cabin which then draws the exhaust fumes in.I removed the latch from the rear panel (as it wouldn't adjust inwards any further) put it in vice & carefully adjusted with a hammer.When I refitted it the tailgate it had no movement & the problem was gone.Hope this helps.
 
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