Exhaust odor with hard acceleration.

arampapaz

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For the last 2 weeks or so I have been experiencing an odor when driving my civic hard. It goes away when I let up on the gas, and it never shows up with normal driving. Any ideas what could be causing this? I have a cold air intake installed, but that has been there for months and the odor just started recently.
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inv4zn

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I think you're just imagining things.

If you had an exhaust leak severe enough for immediate odour, you'll hear it before you smell it.
If your headers are cracked or something, you wouldn't be able to drive normally and you'd be throwing codes left and right.
Intake has nothing to do with exhaust.

Could it be something completely different? I had a plastic bag melt onto my cat in my old car and it smelled bad for about 3 weeks before it went away.
 
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arampapaz

arampapaz

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I looked around the car but saw nothing unusual. The odor only comes during hard acceleration. I've had people in the car and they smell it as well.
 

inv4zn

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I looked around the car but saw nothing unusual. The odor only comes during hard acceleration. I've had people in the car and they smell it as well.
Can it be another smell though.

Exhaust fumes is a very broad "smell", and it can differ on what your engine is doing as well.
 
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arampapaz

arampapaz

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Can it be another smell though.

Exhaust fumes is a very broad "smell", and it can differ on what your engine is doing as well.
Absolutely. It is hard to pinpoint the exact odor. Maybe fuel fumes, not sure. But it is definitely under hard acceleration and usually only at higher speeds. I will have to bring it in and have it checked out.
 


inv4zn

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Yup - check your oil level to make sure you're not burning any oil, look around for obvious signs of trouble in the engine bay.
Has your MPG declined drastically? Car idles at higher RPM than usual? Any other signs of trouble?

Without any offense to you, if you take your car to the dealer with "my car smells funny" chances are they'll blow you off.
 

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I get a funny smell with all cars that I have driven up a steep hill or under hard acceleration. It come from the engine bay, but I don't know what it is. It's as if the engine is overheating.
 
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arampapaz

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I get a funny smell with all cars that I have driven up a steep hill or under hard acceleration. It come from the engine bay, but I don't know what it is. It's as if the engine is overheating.
Yeah this almost how I feel. The strange thing is that it only started recently, and I have driven hard in the past as well.
 
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arampapaz

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Yup - check your oil level to make sure you're not burning any oil, look around for obvious signs of trouble in the engine bay.
Has your MPG declined drastically? Car idles at higher RPM than usual? Any other signs of trouble?

Without any offense to you, if you take your car to the dealer with "my car smells funny" chances are they'll blow you off.
Thanks for your suggestions. I have looked, and found nothing. Gas mileage seems great as usual. As far as Honda blowing me off, that seems to be typical for Honda with any issues.
 

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I'd be interested to see a wide band O2 sensor reading. Your air/fuel ratios could be off at wide open throttle with the CAI.

Without an actual identification of the smell, pretty hard to suggest what it could be. It's pretty hard to get exhaust smell in your car at WoT honestly. Unless you got some weird draft pulling it into your cabin. I had a side dump external wastegate on my old Talon and I never once smelt it in the car.
 


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also check your oil level. If overfilled, you get oil coming into contact with the crank, aerating the oil, causing a reduction in the oil pumps ability to send it to all parts of the engine. An oil overfill on our vehicle will result in PCV rebreathing through the intake, excessive exhaust smoke, and a very poor, oil-saturated, combustion process.
 

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Thanks for your suggestions. I have looked, and found nothing. Gas mileage seems great as usual. As far as Honda blowing me off, that seems to be typical for Honda with any issues.
My ex t does the same thing. If I floor it there's a burning exhaust smell. I just assumed it was the smell of the exhaust or cat getting hot and normal. Paint or coating burning off maybe? My car just has 2,200 miles on it. I know exactly what your talking about though. After you accelerate hard to pass someone there's definitely a stinky smell. My oil level is fine and my fuel economy is fine and the car runs great, it just stinks.
It's the same smell all of us are familiar with. If you don't have your vents on circulation and the car in front of you accelerates hard you smell the stink of the exhaust. This is the exact same odor I recognize in my car when I floor it.
In 2004 I bought an accord v6 and it produced a very similar odor. There was a TSB from Honda stating that some owners may complain of an exhaust odor during acceleration. The fix was to replace the cat converter. I'll touch base in this thread in the future after the new wears off.
 

mc1200s

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My ex t does the same thing. If I floor it there's a burning exhaust smell. I just assumed it was the smell of the exhaust or cat getting hot and normal. Paint or coating burning off maybe? My car just has 2,200 miles on it. I know exactly what your talking about though. After you accelerate hard to pass someone there's definitely a stinky smell. My oil level is fine and my fuel economy is fine and the car runs great, it just stinks.
It's the same smell all of us are familiar with. If you don't have your vents on circulation and the car in front of you accelerates hard you smell the stink of the exhaust. This is the exact same odor I recognize in my car when I floor it.
In 2004 I bought an accord v6 and it produced a very similar odor. There was a TSB from Honda stating that some owners may complain of an exhaust odor during acceleration. The fix was to replace the cat converter. I'll touch base in this thread in the future after the new wears off.
My ex t does the same thing. If I floor it there's a burning exhaust smell. I just assumed it was the smell of the exhaust or cat getting hot and normal. Paint or coating burning off maybe? My car just has 2,200 miles on it. I know exactly what your talking about though. After you accelerate hard to pass someone there's definitely a stinky smell. My oil level is fine and my fuel economy is fine and the car runs great, it just stinks.
It's the same smell all of us are familiar with. If you don't have your vents on circulation and the car in front of you accelerates hard you smell the stink of the exhaust. This is the exact same odor I recognize in my car when I floor it.
In 2004 I bought an accord v6 and it produced a very similar odor. There was a TSB from Honda stating that some owners may complain of an exhaust odor during acceleration. The fix was to replace the cat converter. I'll touch base in this thread in the future after the new wears off.
Honda Civic 10th gen Exhaust odor with hard acceleration. IMG_6977.PNG
 

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does the smell go away if you have the recirculation on? with it off its pulling air by the engine bay.

i would just take it to the dealer and let them mess with it since its under warranty. there shouldnt be any leaks on a new car
 


 


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