My Gf's honda fit, 2012, 130,000kms has been pumping fumes into the cab when using the fresh air intake. On recirc mode, it is still pretty bad and will give you a headache within an hour.

My mechanic inspected the whole vehicle, and we saw a basically brand new looking exhaust system and under body. It was purchased from a province that doesn't use salt in the winter. I know my way around cars, have been working with him to solve this, and I would agree, and why we chose the vehicle.

I trust and have hired this guy for years for both personal and commercial vehicles. We can clearly smell it from the exhaust manifold the second the car is started. We drained the coolant, replaced the manifold gaskets, and the problem is better, but there are still fumes in the cab, but no smell from the manifold. He is borrowing a sniffer tool from a friend in a few days so we can go over everything more closely. The next item might be the EGR valve, but the part is almost 300$ so we are waiting to see. But now, another issue popped up.

A day later, the check engine light came on, so I brought it back for a quick scan. Its reading cylinder 2 misfire. He says plugs, and I agree. I don't drive the car often, but have noticed it on start up a couple of times.

After a quick google I saw I post from this forum about the spark plugs backing off as being a common problem on a Fit, so decided that they should probably be replaced anyway, but would this have anything to do with the exhaust fumes? Most things I can do myself, but after a move I don't have my tools/ramps/stands etc. So I really hope it could just be plugs. That I can do in a few minutes.

Its more of a health matter at this point as she commutes around town all day for work, and comes home with basically co2 poisoning every day. Her 'mechanic', replaced the 'canister' which I don't even know what it is because of a language barrier, and it cost her 800$ and did nothing, I don't wish to go back to a mechanic I can't communicate with, and even talking to him about working on my vehicle, I don't really trust. My mechanic lets me do most the work and only charges me for parts and a fraction of labour as I only have a question here and there and get to use his specialty tools.



Any thoughts or comments from anyone who may have had the same issues?

 

I've read here on this forum that exhaust smell in the cabin can be caused by a plug that start to loosen.

Plugs on a Fit are a bit longer then a few minute as they are hard to access.

When you replace the plugs, be ready to throw in a coil pack if a previous plug has loosen. It might have caused the coil to melt a bit. Also, use OE coils or Hitachi (I think), because cheap coils often leads to other problems down the line.

Hope this helps a bit!