These 5 Things Could Cause Your Car Interior To Smell Like Gas

There is no shortage of dangers when driving your car, and it can be easy to overlook something like the exhaust system. Although problems with this system aren’t very common, they can be incredibly dangerous. If you smell exhaust or gas inside your vehicle, you should have it looked at by experts right away. Fortunately, our authorized Subaru service center by the airport in Columbus, OH is also an expert exhaust shop. If every you have any issues with the exhaust system in your Subaru, please schedule your service appointment easily online. Below, we look at five of the more common reasons you might smell exhaust in your vehicle.

5. Is The Exhaust Smell Coming From Your Car
Today’s roads certainly get crowded, and you might find yourself stuck in traffic near another vehicle that’s in need of some maintenance. While you shouldn’t smell exhaust from most other modern cars, there are vehicles out there that just stink. So, if you no longer notice the exhaust smell after a few turns, and the smell doesn’t return, it may not have been your vehicle that had the problem.

4. Corrosion May Have Compromised Exhaust System
Subaru vehicles are popular throughout the Columbus, OH area because of how reliable and capable they are, especially in the winter. Of course, winter driving around here presents other issues, and exhaust system corrosion is certainly one of them. It only takes a small rust hole for exhaust to leak out. Depending on where the leak is, you could start to smell exhaust inside the cabin.

3. The Catalytic Converter May Have Expired
Once the exhaust leaves the engine, one of the first things it flows through is the catalytic converter. This component is designed to get exceptionally hot so that unburned fuel and other products of combustion in the engine can be broken down into elements that are less harmful. If the catalytic converter in your vehicle is beginning to go out, your likely to first notice something of a rotten egg smell. That’s because sulfur is among the things that the catalytic converter is designed to eliminate. A failed catalytic converter can also be an issue for a vehicle registered in one of the Ohio counties that require smog checks.

2. What Kind Of Shape Is Your Muffler In?
A problem with the muffler is one of the more common causes of an exhaust smell inside your vehicle. The muffler is generally mounted further back on the vehicle. So, if it does have a problem, you may notice it in the way the vehicle sounds instead of bad smells inside the cabin. Whatever the problem with the muffler may be, it’s an important part to get fixed sooner rather than later.

1. There Could Be A Leak At The Exhaust Manifold
The exhaust manifold is where the engine’s exhaust gases first exit the engine. One of the most common reasons we see for an exhaust smell inside a vehicle is a leak through the gasket between this manifold and the engine cylinder heads. An exhaust leak in this location means that your vehicle air conditioning system or heater could pick it up from the engine compartment. That’s often why you might notice an exhaust or gas smell when you turn on the heat or AC.