Camry '04 exhaust smell in cabin?

art1966
Wed, 03 Jan 2024 01:54:05 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

A lot of background, and two questions…

The '04 Camry 4-cyl has about 175K miles. Driving today (many legs, ranging from 5 blocks to 10 miles on the interstate), I began to notice exhaust smell. As I continued, I thought it was maybe from the traffic (including a diesel bus). But then the smell did not dissipate when the traffic thinned. Late afternoon, I called my Trusted Independent Mechanic, who can take it day after tomorrow.

A quick Google search indicates that a likely cause is an exhaust leak. Question 1: Shouldn’t I hear some sound if there is an exhaust leak bad enough to put fumes into the cabin?

One additional weirdness: Last night I had popped loose the heat/AC control panel (shown in pic below) to change a light bulb. I was driving with the panel ajar, hoping to install a replacement bulb before popping the panel back in. After a while I popped the panel back in, and the smell maybe decreased. Question 2: Do any of you experts have an explanation as to why exhaust smell might be coming out of that panel opening?

14 posts - 7 participants