My Mazda is Making Me Sick...

....its a 92 Eunos with about 80,000 miles on it, and its making me
'car-sick' beacuse it smells "fumey". Its not so bad if I drive around with
re-circ on, but with re-circ off I soon feel travel-sick.
When I stop the car I can smell the smell that's making me sick very
strongly, coming from the front of the car, but I can't make out exactly
what it is - its like a combination of hot oil, burning rubber and exhaust.
Its a general a fumey old car smell, but lots of it. I had another car that
smelled like this once when the breather (crank vent to air filter) hose had
come adrift, but this is much worse, and I can't see any loose hoses on this
one.

I don't use the car very much - say 3,000 miles per year. Each year I have
the "waxoyl" (undersealant) checked and touched up, and I did wonder whether
some of this or some oil had got on the exhaust system at the last service,
but I would have expected this to have burnt off by now, especially as I
have done a couple of 200+ mile jorneys (in addition to my normal usage).

Has anyone else come across anything like this?

Dz
92 BRG Eunos Roadster

First I was thinking you might have a bit of an oil leak from the valve
cover gasket, dripping on the exhaust manifold but that pretty much smels
like.............burning oil......

I think you hit it on the head with this underbody coating stuff. I'd take
it back to them and I'm sure that they'll throw it up on the rack and take a
look around. If they are sufficiently inquisitive, I'll bet you find it,
scrape it off and the problem goes away within some miles.

Another thing, what about your exhaust heating up some of this puckky and
causing it to drip onto the exhaust or header? If so, you might not see a
build up but you'd probably see some residue or other evidence. Pretend
you're a 'private eye' looking for clues, eh?

Keep us posted , if you will,
Chris
92BB&T

"Dransfield" > wrote in message
...
> ...its a 92 Eunos with about 80,000 miles on it, and its making me
> 'car-sick' beacuse it smells "fumey". Its not so bad if I drive around
> with re-circ on, but with re-circ off I soon feel travel-sick.
> When I stop the car I can smell the smell that's making me sick very
> strongly, coming from the front of the car, but I can't make out exactly
> what it is - its like a combination of hot oil, burning rubber and
> exhaust. Its a general a fumey old car smell, but lots of it. I had
> another car that smelled like this once when the breather (crank vent to
> air filter) hose had come adrift, but this is much worse, and I can't see
> any loose hoses on this one.
>
> I don't use the car very much - say 3,000 miles per year. Each year I have
> the "waxoyl" (undersealant) checked and touched up, and I did wonder
> whether some of this or some oil had got on the exhaust system at the last
> service, but I would have expected this to have burnt off by now,
> especially as I have done a couple of 200+ mile jorneys (in addition to my
> normal usage).
>
> Has anyone else come across anything like this?
>
> Dz
> 92 BRG Eunos Roadster
>

Dransfield wrote:
> ...its a 92 Eunos with about 80,000 miles on it, and its making me
> 'car-sick' beacuse it smells "fumey". Its not so bad if I drive around with
> re-circ on, but with re-circ off I soon feel travel-sick.

I was going to suggest that perhaps the outer shift boot is cracked, but
on re-reading this perhaps not. I'm talking about the rubber boot that
bolts to the tunnel, not the decorative one you see from the drivers
seat -- this one:

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...n&key=MIAD1031

Whatever the problem is, get it looked into -- oil fumes are one thing,
but if you're smelling exhaust gases the danger of carbon monoxide
poisoning is a real possibility.

Inspect the collector of the exhaust manifold (where all the pipes come together)
I had that proplem with a small crack in the welds there. You can really see it if
you use a catalytic safe carb cleaner- white smoke will pour out the crack. If
thats it the upside is you can justify upgrading to a larger header.

David Higgins wrote:

> Dransfield wrote:
> > ...its a 92 Eunos with about 80,000 miles on it, and its making me
> > 'car-sick' beacuse it smells "fumey". Its not so bad if I drive around with
> > re-circ on, but with re-circ off I soon feel travel-sick.
>
> I was going to suggest that perhaps the outer shift boot is cracked, but
> on re-reading this perhaps not. I'm talking about the rubber boot that
> bolts to the tunnel, not the decorative one you see from the drivers
> seat -- this one:
>
> http://www.finishlineperformance.com...n&key=MIAD1031
>
> Whatever the problem is, get it looked into -- oil fumes are one thing,
> but if you're smelling exhaust gases the danger of carbon monoxide
> poisoning is a real possibility.

Thanks for your replies.
The more I think about it the more I'm sure its something generating 'extra'
fumes rather than normal fumes coming out of the wrong place.
The reason I suspect this: I parked the car in front of my house the other
day and I could smell it from an upstairs room. It stinks!
I'm planning to change the rocker cover gasket and see if that cures it.
(The gear shift gaiter _is_ shot so I'll do that at the same time).
Thanks
Dz

The car is old enough to possibly have "blowby". The PCV Valve and the crud
catcher in the valve cover should be checked and likely cleaned. If the
fumes from the crankcase are making it to the outside, the car will smell.
(Cracked or missing vent hoses, bad rubber gaskets/seals, etc. ) Oil
accumulation on an older engine and sometimes gets mixed with dirt and crud.
When things get hot enough, it will smell.

"Dransfield" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for your replies.
> The more I think about it the more I'm sure its something generating
'extra'
> fumes rather than normal fumes coming out of the wrong place.
> The reason I suspect this: I parked the car in front of my house the other
> day and I could smell it from an upstairs room. It stinks!
> I'm planning to change the rocker cover gasket and see if that cures it.
> (The gear shift gaiter _is_ shot so I'll do that at the same time).
> Thanks
> Dz
>
>