Hello everyone,

I would like to take quick poll to see if you smell exhaust when the environmental control is set to outside air and you are driving in city traffic or near another car.

I personally have this problem ALL the time and it really annoys me. The fix is to keep it on recirc but sometimes I would like to have the "fresh" air without opening the windows. Or, sometimes, the AUTO switches to outside and then I end up getting fumigated...

If anyone has experienced this or has a possible solution, please let me know!

Thanks,
Mike

sometimes.. usually it's either a diesel car or, now that the weather's getting cold again, the smell of a really cold gas engine (i.e it's running rich). This is with a Prius without plasmacluster. The sad thing is that I just automatically shut the vent every time I see a coach or a large truck (like those carrying sand/stone, concrete mixer, semis etc) just because I know it'll come into the cabin.

Mods: EV mod, VVT-i emblem, sport pedals, OEM cargo mat, JDM Prius interior footwell lighting, Sylvania Silverstars 9003ST, DICE iPod kit, OEM all-weather mats, TomTom ONE v2, LED licence plate lights.

I've occasionally been able to smell outside fumes with the setting on fresh air, but I wouldn't say it's all the time. I prefer the fresh air mode to the recirc mode, so I usually keep it set there. Once in a rare while there will be a really strong smell coming in, that I can not identify the source of.

--My hybrid came home!--
Ottawa owners check in here

Randy

I often have at least one window open, and the moonroof cracked, if it's not raining or unusually cold (about to become usually cold :\ ). Occasionally find myself needing to shut things up, mostly when next to or behind a truck/bus etc. Sometimes random cars are stinky too. Rarely but occasionally feel it necessary to go to recirc.

When in traffic (stop and go), I instinctively switch it to recirc.. I personally have not noticed any "external" smells! lol

All of the time when behind city busses. Even in the country it's logging trucks and school buses. I will be glad when the "old" diesel goes away. My father-in-law is so allergic to diesel fumes that he had to move way out in the sticks in rural Montana to avoid a daily need to use oxygen.

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

Sorry to hear about your dad

Boy, I am glad I am not the only one that smells this. I never had this problem with my Ford Ranger and I think that is because the air box was on the front passenger side. This intake is practically in the exhaust pipe of the vehicle in front of you. The only possibly solution I can think of is to move the intake.

When I first changed my air filter I wounder what the other filter was. Active charcoal. Isn't that suppose to reduce odors?? Well I will be the first to say the only thing it does is rude FE as it restricts air flow.

Hmmm... Interesting.. I was born and raised in NYC.. Maybe I'm use to it?

"You smell that? Do you smell that? Pollution, son!! Nothing else on the world smells like that!! I love the smell of pollution in the morning!!! Smells like.... victory..."


Sorry, I just had to...

At substantial risk of sounding like a left-coast snob, the draconian emission laws in California make this a delightfully rare occurrence. Public transit buses are CNG or electric. Bi-annual smog checks will down your car until it passes too. And for the wise-guys who cheat the system, there are random laser traps at freeway on-ramps to sample your exhaust under heavy engine load and take a picture if you are too dirty. You then get a notice to bring your car to a state inspection center within 30 days.

I travel an awful lot for work and going from state-to-state I really notice a difference. Even at gas stations... one could almost forget how badly gasoline stinks with the 10 pounds of vapor recovery, vacuum crap on the pump nozzles in CA, until you go to anywhere else. It hits me like a ton of bricks, it's nauseating.

With new Federal standards to scrub diesel particulate emissions rolling out with the new ULSD fuels, things will get even better.

It is easy to dismiss all of this as a bunch of misguided Utopian crack-pot California nuttiness, except for the fact that it works! The thick brown layer over the region is about 70% less now than it was when I moved here in 1986.

I probably travel as much as you do.. Maybe ~ 150K airline miles a year.. I don't notice the difference in smells that you claim.. Alas, it might be my NYC nose.

Maybe you're up in SF, but down here in SoCal, check out the traffic. 405 on a Friday north and southbound between LA and OC. 6 lanes + 1 HOV EACH WAY. Bumper to bumper for 70+ miles. True story, one Friday, it took me 7.5 hours to go 80 miles. No accidents, just volume. When I fly into LAX, I still see that dome of yellow/brown smog. You smell that?