Exhaust smell

I am getting an exhaust smell that will occasionally come into the cabin from the vents, and I can also smell it whenever my windows are rolled down....does it have a leak? My dad said the only thing he could see was a possibly bad gasket in the middle of the exhaust pipe, where it connects to the midpipe....am I correct on this...anyways, is there any way to tell if that is where the leak is coming from? My dad said the exhaust manifolds were tight...

[winston856]

I had this problem as well and when I had my mechanic re-seal the rear of the motor which required pulling, it said he took my header off, cleaned up the ports and put new gaskets in then tightened it down real good.

Haven't had the problem since.

I would buy new exhaust gaskets for the heads and the collector, that should eliminate the problem. Look at the welds as well, may be cracks.

For what it's worth my exhaust shop has a sort of "sniffer" that can detect where an exhaust leak is coming from. Perhaps you've got a shop nearby that has such a device and could pinpoint your leak.

[Reason]

Jack up the car get under there and look for black sot spots. Thats a good indication theres a leak. Not only that the gaskets could be blown out or rotted away, your pipe could be rusted through too. You will only really know when you get under there and look around.

[Huffer]

Something else you can do is in a garage (with the door open) and plenty of light, get a water bottle sprayer and spray lightly around the exhaust pipe when you start up the car - if there is an exhaust leak the mist should be pushed away from the the hole...

dad looked underneath and said the only thing he could find was a possible bad gasket where the pipes meet. he didnt see any soot or rust as far as i know...

[Reason]

Get your self a few gaskets and change them out.

bet that's not gonna be a fun job to do lol.

[1-3-2-4]

only of the bolts are so rusted they need to be cut off..

[Reason]

I bumped this thread up since you started another one asking the same question. If you are for sure that theres no holes then you could have a bad gasket. Theres nothing wrong with changing them all out.

Im so sorry! I am a member of like 3 subaru forums, and could not remember if I'd put it here or not!
Thanks!

[Reason]

Im so sorry! I am a member of like 3 subaru forums, and could not remember if I'd put it here or not!
Thanks!

lol 3, thats cute, some of us are members to over 30+ forums and counting. :twisted:

[jg09]

No, it's like golf, lower number is better! 2 for me! :lol: Anywho, it'll be your gaskets most likely. And beware of rusted bolts. I had to hack my Explorer's exhaust up quite a bit with a sawzall to modify my exhaust (granted, my "modification" was taking part of it off, so I would've done it anyway).

Yeah, I'm going to get all the necessary gaskets and have them replaced. See if that helps. The pipes themselves don't look rusted thru anywhere, so I'm not sure if that would be it or not. There is one heat shield in the middle of the system that needs to come off cuz its busted...but other than that, the gaskets are all I can think of.