Carbon Monoxide

I drive a 1992 NissanPrimera wagon. The car is the picture of reliability but lately I suspect there’s a carbon monoxide leak somewhere. After driving the car a short while, half an hour or so, my head feels swollen, headache, etc. Since this became apparent it’s been to the mechanic twice. First he said he welded shut a leak in the front exhaust system. The second time he replaced the seal on the on the part that covers the cylinders, through which one refills the oil. The carbon monoxide symptoms persist. Needless to say, I’m not driving the car but I would like to fix this. Any suggestions?

Get a battery operated CO detector and check to see if it is really CO…If you must drive do so with the windows open until next winter and unless you can fix I’d get rid of it…

Is This Vehicle Rusty Underneath To The Point Of Having Holes Anywhere ?

If so, I’d call it good. You got your money’s worth out of it. Eighteen to nineteen years is plenty.

If not, it sounds like you might need a whole new exhaust system.

Whatever the case, don’t keep driving it like this. A little bit beyond a “swollen head” comes “slumped over the steering wheel”.

CSA

I agree with csa. If your vehicle is rusty then there is no use in driving a “suicide machine”.

Agree with CSA and missileman. However, if you have a rust hole in a FLAT part of the floor the fix is easy. I fixed my 1957 Plymouth rustbucket by simply installing a flat piece of gavanized sheet metal with automotive body sealer/putty and self tapping metal screws. The fix held for several years.

Curved surfaces can be fixed with a fiberglass boat patching kit which has the cloth, resin and all other items to fix odd shaped holes. Make sure you grind the surface down to bare metal or the fiberglass won’t stick.

–get the kind of detector that actually reads out in parts-per-million of CO. Just having an alarm go off doesn’t tell you much.

Maybe the problem is the rear weatherstrip seal around the rear hatch and/or lack of an air deflector since this is a wagon.
While traveling down the road a low pressure area will develop around the rear of a vehicle that has a squared off tail end. (wagons, vans, SUVs, etc.)

This low pressure area pulls exhaust fumes upwards and it can leak into the passenger compartment past the seal.
If you’ve seen vehicles with air deflectors mounted on the top rear of the vehicle body you now know what those deflectors are for; it’s to disrupt that low pressure area.

Thanks. I’ll check the floor for holes. Is there a not too complicated technique I might use to spot where the gas might be coming in?

Thanks. I’ll check the weatherstrip.