Weird smell coming from vents

[Russell Sawyer]

I have a 2007 Honda Civic and there is a weird smell coming from the vents when I have the selector on fresh air. Could it be exhaust? It almost smells like a faint burnt transmission fluid but its unbearable to leave it on outside air. I have to run it on recirculated air all the time. Where does the car get its fresh air from? Is it possible for air from under the car to get into the fresh air system, in the event of an exhaust leak? I had this same exact problem on a 2000 Subaru Legacy Outback but never found out what it was before the timing belt broke. This is my wife’s car so not sure the exact maintenance history.

Thanks

Russell

One more thing I want to mention is that the wife runs the car on re circulation mode all the time. Not sure if that would cause a bad smell.

Topic

[none]

Pop your hood and look for oil leaking onto the exhaust manifold. I’ve had to replace a couple spool valve solenoids for the v-tec due to leaks. Now that I’m thinking about it, did the car get an oil change recently? Hondas are starting to get kinda bad about where they put their oil filters. It usually equates to a mess for the sap that’s got to do the oil change and some oil might have hit the exhaust pipes then. In my taxi days, I used to see the occasional exhaust pipe catch a plastic bag and thoroughly melt the bag onto the pipe.

Good luck.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Could be something dead in there. The system gets it’s fresh air from the vents under the windshield wipers. Any smells in the engine compartment can sometimes be drawn in to this area. As suggested you might check for oil leaks onto exhaust parts. More info on HVAC operation and problems here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-hvac-problems

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Author]

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