Exhaust in cabin

[Yale E]

I tend to put a lot of miles on my cars and also it’s not unusual for me to have a car worked on for years. And that certainly has been the case with my turbo. Now it’s at a friends garage in North Cal. A few years ago, before covid,  I had the car worked on in Southern California. That’s why the car was out there, though I live in NYC. It was never fully fixed in south cal so it ended up with a 2002 specialist my friend, (who is a porsche mechanic) knew. It’s seems the car is now finally sorted and my in friend moving back to his garage, noted to me that he’s getting exhaust fumes in the cabin. I remember that was always the case with the car. And when I had it at sportscar restoration in ct, they said this happens with 02’s. My west coast friend heard otherwise and thinks it could be because of the spoiler. So dear tubo-ites. What is your experience?

[Yale E]

By the way I signed in as yale e though I am still yale as I couldn’t get my old email address to work. 

[Preyupy]

Start off by looking at the trunk seal, that is where most '02's leak.  The other possibility is the connection between the front down pipe and the center exhaust pipe.  If you have a leak there and you don't have the big foam plug around the shifter in the floor it leaks quite badly there as well.  

[Yale E]

So you do not have a lot of exhaust oder with your turbos?

Edited June 12, 2023 by Yale E
more clarity

[Preyupy]

Not inside the car.  If I stand behind it while it is warming up it's definitely rich but other than that I don't get any exhaust or fuel smell.  

[Lengrep]

I get exhaust smell in my tii and Turbo with windows open…

[Yale E]

Yes that is when I get it as well. So it can indeed be an 02 situation. Unless more folks pop up and say they have had this issue and solved it this way?

[Preyupy]

You might try blocking the air outlets at the base of the back window (under the trunk lid)  sometimes if you have the vent windows open you can have a back flow through them.  

[Yale E]

Thanks Pre, appreciate the thoughts. As someone mentioned, this situation happens mostly with windows open. Which of course could be that there is more ingestion of fumes from various places because the window is open.  

[Preyupy]

It is a common '02 problem and not limited to the Turbos.  Are the vent tubes hooked up inside the trunk?  A lot of cars that have been restored are missing these or they failed to hook them up correctly 

[Lengrep]

8 minutes ago, Preyupy said:

It is a common '02 problem and not limited to the Turbos.  Are the vent tubes hooked up inside the trunk?  A lot of cars that have been restored are missing these or they failed to hook them up correctly 

Good point. Mine are missing in both cars. 

[Lengrep]

Correction.  The vent covers are missing in my sunroof tii. Vent tubes in place on my Turbo.