Smelly Griff

[gkb]

I have a 4L precat Griff that smells like exhaust fumes inside. If I potter around town its O.K. but if I floor it, or do anything over about 70mph (I have it in Germany at the moment) the smell appears almost instantly. The same smell also exists in the boot. I drove all the way from Calais to Bremen the otherday with the windows open and now all of my luggage stinks!!
I have checked to see if everything is sealed in the engine compartment, around the rear lights and the boot seals, and everythng seems O.K.

Can anyone help!! Also is there anything on the market to clean the carpets in the car that will also get rid on the ingrained exhaust smell.

I´ve only had the car in Germany for 2 days, and already somebody stopped me to have a look.

[jigs]

Maybe a leaking exhaust. Clean the carpets and then use Fabreze.

[prop]

Be careful - I was a passenger coming back to Kent from Goodwood last year in a DB6 that had a leaky exhaust. Didn't realise until I got home and my wife complained about the smell of fumes on my clothes. Had a serious headache for 24 hours and the driver was off work the following day, spending most of the time throwing up.

If you dont find the leak very quickly I would have the exhaust system tested professionally.

[MSJ]

I had this on myold 4.0. Make sure that the seals around the rear lights are intact, check the boot seal (I replaced mine and sealed it to the car with silicon sealant).

You can also get the void between the boot and the rear wing behind the door sealed - Fernhurst did this for me.

I also had fumes coming into the cabin from the front - it was leaking into the inner wing and from there into the cabin - check that the bit where the inner wing meets the headlight pod and front apron - there was a big hole onmine that I sealed with a leather patch.

Good luck.

Mike.

[apache]

It might be worth checking the boot seal is ok. Griffs have a habit of drawing fumes in from the taipipe. You can buy extension which help apparently

[mickygee]

Best thing I did on my 92' Griff was to seal the rear lights with black silicon as per the Griff '500. Now much better only smells a bit !

Suspect exhaust connection from 'y' piece to system. Then she should be pong free.

[victormeldrew]

I have noticed luggage left in the boot of my Chim ponging a bit of fumes lately, maybe my boot seal is on its way out. No fumes in the car though - but then I do have huge speakers where the vents used to be.

[steve-p]

victormeldrew said: I have noticed luggage left in the boot of my Chim ponging a bit of fumes lately, maybe my boot seal is on its way out. No fumes in the car though - but then I do have huge speakers where the vents used to be.

Maybe that's why - surely TVR put those vents in for a good reason?

[steve-p]

One thing that no-one has mentioned is that pre-cat Griffs can have a problem where the exhaust manifold on one or both sides is too close to the inner wing, and the inner wing gets so hot that it gives off horrid smelling fumes. I had a problem with this. There was some heat shielding there, but I had to replace it with some thicker stuff. Some cars will have had the inner wings modified for more clearance too, usually if the existing ones were so toasted before the problem was addressed, that they became weak.

[gkb]

Thanks everyone for the help. As it turns out it was the boot seal. The seal looks o.k. but when the lid was shut the whole back edge of the seal wasn't touching the lid. There was a gap of about 1/4 of an inch. I have stuck a self adhesive rubber window seal (for double glazing) onto the boot lid which has cured the problem. When I get home I will get a new seal.
Did you know that you can get fe-breeze for autos. It doesn't leave the usual fe-breeze pong that the one for the clothes does.
Thanks
Gordon

[alba]

steve-p said: Maybe that's why - surely TVR put those vents in for a good reason?

I believe that the vents are only there so that the cabin doesn't become pressurised when the fan is on - others have reported pressurisation with the vents closed off.

No-one seems to know what happens to this pressure after it vents into the boot, though. I thought maybe it's simply that the greater volume prevents the pressure building as high?

Then again, it could just be one of these TVR things...