Rep Power: 0

this sounds ridiculous, but I cant find the leak. I can only smell it when the car is stationary with the environmental air running. When its moving the smell is gone, i assume from air flow.

there was a small leak 3 inches in front of the muffler. I thought that i had solved the problem when i patched it. I poured water over the previous leak looking for air bubbles with the engine running. there are none.

this might just be worthless information: a 12" section of black hose, about 1/4" diameter fell from somewhere last time i changed the oil. vacuum hose of some sort??? any chance this has anything to do with it?

I cant find any other leaks along the exhaust. with winter approaching, i need to get this taken care of before i use the heat on a regular basis. I dont want to replace the entire exhaust system if I dont have to. are there any other possible places that it could be leaking from? I have been under the hood, under the car sniffing away and i cant smell any exhaust either which is really frustrating.

Where is the intake for environmental air?

 
Rep Power: 256

a hose fell off and you said screw it i don't need that ??? that hose mite have something to do with your positive crank case ventilation i would investigate further.does it smell like burnt oil ???

 
Rep Power: 812

lol yeah definately find where the hose fell from. what is the diameter? could also be an evap hose and that would give gas smell. for now use the recirculate button so outside air wont get in, but you need to find out what the hose was. have you tried sniffing around the engine bay for exhaust leaks near the header?

 
Rep Power: 0

pcv and canister has all its hoses attached. I still have the hose sitting in my back seat hoping that eventually i will figure out where it came from.

additional info..

pcv hose (connected to pcv valve has a slight crack) I just discovered that while checking if thats where the hose came from. i dont know if it cracks all the way through of its just a surface crack, either way I'm going to replace that.

I just had my wife whom has a better nose sniff around a bit. she narrowed down a bit to a localized area on near the timing belt area. She thought it smelled like a mix of raw gas and exhaust. I can faintly pick it up if i stick my nose next to the upper transmission mount above the alternator but only a light exhaust smell. What is around there that may be leaking? It doesnt smell at the exhaust manifold or underneath along the pipe. (note to self, dont get nose too close hot items)

where is the enviromentals air intake? I would like to look around there for the source..

edit: gearbox- its 1/4" i brought it inside and washed it. the only word that i could read was "vacuum" labeling on it. there are traces of other words on there that probably faded 10 years ago.
lowlife-thanks for the diagram, I cant tell if my pcv is ticking. my valves need to be adjusted so there is other ticking that needs to be addressed as well. burnt oil smell...not that i can tell, it smells like exhaust to me. I could be wrong though

 
Rep Power: 0

is it possible for a bad pcv valve to be the source? I re-inspected all the hoses are there... I couldn't hear any ticking coming from it when i pinched off the hose so i'm just going to replace it since its a cheap fix.

gearbox: if its an evap hose, where should i be looking? I'm not familiar at all with that.

 
Rep Power: 812

somewhere around throttle body area.

 
Rep Power: 0

just a follow up... I replaced the pcv and hose and the problem as been resolved. after taking it off, there were some significant cracks in the hose on the back side. it was a cheap fix and i havent had any problems since. I took the throttle body apart and cleaned that as well. there was a small amount of oil that had made its way backwards to the intake (large plastic pipeing), however none in the air filter.

what damage may have been done from a malfunctioning pcv + hose? I cut open the pcv and it was suprisingly clean. check valve moved freely prior to cutting it open so i doubt that it needed to be replaced but for the $3 part i figured it wouldnt hurt to replace.* bonus i got to see what was inside.

 
Rep Power: 812

pcv just moves gas out and then back in to reburn it. its more for emissions purposes to recycle engine combustion gases. long term pcv failure could cause corrosion of the engine, but we're talking many years.