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Diesel Exhaust Smell in Cabin

24K views 50 replies 23 participants last post by  smkn600ctd 
#1 · (Edited)
Anyone else experience this?

I get a very slight odour of diesel exhaust through the HVAC vents when stopped at a traffic light. It is like an untreated diesel smell from the old city buses.

It is not the same smell as what comes from the tailpipe - which has an almost ammonia odour to it.

No smell when the vehicle is moving.
 
#3 ·
Was there another diesel vehicle near you at the time? In 12 months I haven't had any smell at all from my car. Maybe your particulate filter was self cleaning at the time?
 
#5 · (Edited)
I've noticed it three times now. It's ever so slight and I'm sometimes better at catching smells than my wife.

Certainly the last time it as at a long light and I was the only car there.

I thought I read of someone else raising a similar observation in the past two weeks or so but I can't find her post.
 
#9 ·
I've only driven it about 300 miles now so I think it's too soon for regen.

After driving it about an hour I stopped and lifted the hood with the engine at idle. I smelled fairly extensively around the running engine. There's a slight smell from the front of the engine but now I would describe it as a kind of new furnace smell. I'm guessing that it's some kind of assembly or shipping oils that are burning off.

If the odour is still noticeable after 1,000 miles I'll investigate further.
 
#10 ·
I've only driven it about 300 miles now so I think it's too soon for regen.

After driving it about an hour I stopped and lifted the hood with the engine at idle. I smelled fairly extensively around the running engine. There's a slight smell from the front of the engine but now I would describe it as a kind of new furnace smell. I'm guessing that it's some kind of assembly or shipping oils that are burning off.

If the odour is still noticeable after 1,000 miles I'll investigate further.
I have not noticed this with mine. You might be right on about the assembly/shipping oils. New cars can really stink for the first few hundred miles.
 
#11 ·
I got stuck idling at the border today for a solid ten minutes.

With the air conditioning on I did not notice any odour. The ventilation was set for outside air.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I just want to bring this one to a full circle conclusion in case a fellow member comes across this, or someone googling around for info happens across this thread.

I now have 1,300 miles on my diesel. I've driven it with the A/C on, the heat on, as well as just the normal outside ambient air from the flow-through ventilation; rolling on the highway, stoped in construction, stuck in traffic, etc.

I have not had a recurrence of the odours or smells that I first reported. I presume that they were some kind of assembly or shipping oils that have since burned off the engine. Whatever they were, they've not come back.
 
#17 ·
My first post here!

I actually found this forum searching for "oil burning smell" on Google.

I have not noticed even a whiff of diesel smell in the 300 miles I've driven mine (picked it up on Saturday), but I am getting an oil-burning smell.

It smells exactly like if you change your oil and spill some on the headers. For the first few miles, you get the burnt oil smell, but it goes away quick. This is not going away, though. I'm worried there is a steady drip of oil getting on something hot. It's not a full burnt oil smell... more of a fresh, warm oil smell.

Is the turbo in our cars oil-cooled/lubricated? I have twin 61mm Garrets in my Mustang, but never smell anything like this. It's thet persistence of the smell that concerns me...
 
#18 ·
I wouldn't worry about it too much. I was concerned about the same thing. The oil'ish smell would be pretty strong sometimes when I got out of the car if the wind blew in from the right direction. I would occasionally smell is mildly in the cabin. At around 1000 miles, or a few more, it went away. I'm up to 1700 or so and have not smelled it since. I did contact my dealer to be safe at around 700-800 miles. They suggested I could wait it out another day or two and that's when I started to notice it dwindling. Enjoy the car!
 
#24 ·
STRONG Diesel exhaust smell in cabin




Hi all,
I just bought a 2014 Cruze diesel a few week ago and have very strong exhaust smell in the cabin of the vehicle.
It has been worsening over the past few weeks since I bought it new.
It had 200 miles when I bought it (dealer test drives) and it has 1400 miles now.
I took my kid to a birthday party and we arrived I parked he car as I normally do.
After turning off the car I noticed the coolant fan was going full blast and white puffy some was coming out of the crack between the hood and driver side fender.(parking lot was not level, the driver side of the car was higher)
I thought the engine bay had caught on fire.
The smoke stopped after a few seconds but the fans stayed on for a minute longer. (Actie REGEN cycle had started?)
While the car is stopped or parked, with the A/C heater fan on inside the car, the smell of exhaust is very noticeable and irritates my eyes.
I need to open some windows and/or turn off the climate fan.
While car is in motion there I no issue.
There are no lights or indications of any problems from the vehicle.
My mileage is an average of 43.2mpg combined over the 1200 miles I've owned it.
Could this be a crack in the particulate filter or maybe a bad gasket somewhere?
Has anyone ever heard f anything this with the Cruze?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
#25 ·
Hi all,
I just bought a 2014 Cruze diesel a few week ago and have very strong exhaust smell in the cabin of the vehicle.
It has been worsening over the past few weeks since I bought it new.
It had 200 miles when I bought it (dealer test drives) and it has 1400 miles now.
I took my kid to a birthday party and we arrived I parked he car as I normally do.
After turning off the car I noticed the coolant fan was going full blast and white puffy some was coming out of the crack between the hood and driver side fender.(parking lot was not level, the driver side of the car was higher)
I thought the engine bay had caught on fire.
The smoke stopped after a few seconds but the fans stayed on for a minute longer. (Actie REGEN cycle had started?)
While the car is stopped or parked, with the A/C heater fan on inside the car, the smell of exhaust is very noticeable and irritates my eyes.
I need to open some windows and/or turn off the climate fan.
While car is in motion there I no issue.
There are no lights or indications of any problems from the vehicle.
My mileage is an average of 43.2mpg combined over the 1200 miles I've owned it.
Could this be a crack in the particulate filter or maybe a bad gasket somewhere?
Has anyone ever heard f anything this with the Cruze?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
This is something that I would see my dealer about in the next day or two.
 
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#26 ·
What you are Smelling is the EGR/CCV Fumes . When the system is left intact from Factory , youl will smell this and it will get worse as time goes on hence I have said this MANY TIMES that the CCV must be addressed for reason like this . 1 Keeps water and muck out of your inner cooler 2 Ask any one that has a Diesel what the CCV/EGR does to a Diesel hence why people do EGR deletes or mods to resolve this issue .
The day I got my my Diesel , this was the first thing I did so I would not have any issues .. never has any smells other then my air freshener in the car. EGR/CCV is run a muck to a Diesel . Google TDI clogged intake and see what a mess this does to a diesel even with ULSD . If you at least address the CCV and do a by pass ,your diesel will thank you down the line . Keep the muck out of the system so that you wont have to ahem (Embrace The Suck).
 
#29 ·
Thanks for all your inputs.
I found the problem!
The alignment of the exhaust manifold pipe to the turbo was off by several degrees.
This is surely a factory fitment problem.

The band clamps had to be loosened, parts realigned and then tighten the clamps back down.
Problem solved, for now...
I wonder if my mileage will go up or down now... place your bets!
 
#31 ·
Wow, that's interesting. I wonder how that one gut by QC. Someone was sleeping at the factory that day. Did you happen to get a pic?
 
#34 ·
Mine has started doing this when I remote start it.

By the time I lock the front door of the house and walk the driveway and get in the car, there is a smell of diesel exhaust in the car. Driving around and even stopped around town, it doesn't smell in the cab.
 
#35 ·
Check the bolts connecting the exhaust pipe to the SCR catalyst. They are underneath the passenger compartment. A number of CTDs have been found with a broken bolt at this connection and it may be the cause of the odours you are detecting.
 
#39 ·
The engine will spray fuel into the exhaust periodically (like a regen, to keep the cat and dpf nice and hot).

A leak before the dpf and cat is thus really nasty. What you are smelling is completely unburnt diesel fuel on top of the standard diesel exhuast. The same white smoke that greets your nostrils when you are following a poorly maintained school bus.
 
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