Hello, just picked up a 92mtx and when running and stop at a light or in my garage i smell alot of exhaust fumes. Car doesnt appear to smoke and exhaust isnt leaking. My temp gauge doesnt go into the normal range so could it be running rich? How hard is it to change the thermostat? Thanks ... Chris.
stinks when running
- Thread starter cmwwit
- Start date
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Hello and welcome, but exactly how does smelly exhaust and your temp gauge not going into the normal range correlate to running rich? I would be looking for holes in your floors if your exhaust is stinky and is seeping into your car or maybe plugged cats. Is your car rusty? Changing the Thermostat is fairly simple but not going to fix your problem. If you thinks it's running rich try cleaning your Mass Air Flow Sensor it might be dirty, it's a long shot but worth checking out...
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stangeater
Farm Boy
All it takes is a very small leak for you to smell it in the car. Also, does the car have cats, or is it catless? Sometimes on cars that have a catless y pipe you can smell the exhaust pretty good....at least on mine you can.
when the pcm sees the engine temp is lower than normal, it runs in open loop mode with a more rich mixture, so changing the thermostat so the engine temp gets up to normal is something you will want to do sooner, not later. doing this may fix your smell, but I would think there is a leak somewhere that is contributing to the smell.
SHOCH
Tommy Boy
You're in PA, find Area91 on here, his Earth name is Brian, he knows these cars well.
shobote
SHO Member
Sounds like either the thermostat, or coolant temp sensor needs to be replaced. It will run rich, which you are smelling, when the temp guage is below normal operating temp.
Ok so went driving again today and now the temp gauge hardly moves at all from the blue cold on the temp gauge. Yesterday it got to the bottom of the normal range. Do you think its thermostat or bad gauge? Still has that rich smell when running even after driven for awhile. Thanks alot im new here and you guys have been great! Chris.
shobote
SHO Member
A thermostat is cheap and 5 minutes to replace, also maybe $20 for the coolant temp sensor which takes about 2 minutes to replace. Just replace them both and do not drive it any more until then. By driving it now when it is always running rich, you are damaging other things that are far more costly than those 3 parts; there is excess fuel in the cylinders washing away the oil film, the oil in your crankcase is now contaminated with gas and needs to be changed, plus you now risk clogging the catalytic converters , which will be very costly to replace.
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