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'91 940 Turbo: Strong exhaust smell

theamdman

New member
Joined
Sep 18, 2018
Location
Maryland
Hello there, I recently purchased a 1991 Volvo 940 Turbo and there's some sort of strong exhaust smell that quickly comes into the cabin of the car. It doesn't smell like oil or gas objectively, but it is a strong smell that seems RPM dependent. I haven't seen any smoke or soot coming out of the exhaust system. The car doesn't seem to be consuming oil or water, but fuel economy seems to be pretty bad compared to my last car ('03 Pontiac Vibe) even across a relative scale. It builds boost fine and has no issues keeping the boost up there even to 5500 rpm.

I did try searching for this issue elsewhere on the forum but did not find anything in my searches that correlated with what i'm experiencing. Any ideas, advice or help is appreciated; thank you!
 
Yep. Or a bad weatherstrips. Such as the tailgate one.

I rode thru LA traffic in a 142 with incomplete exhaust and bad weatherstrips and almost died from poisoning. Well I was sick and irritated. Don't mess around with CO poisoning.
 
Yep. Or a bad weatherstrips. Such as the tailgate one.

I rode thru LA traffic in a 142 with incomplete exhaust and bad weatherstrips and almost died from poisoning. Well I was sick and irritated. Don't mess around with CO poisoning.

I've been driving with the windows down, hopefully this is something I can fix myself, but I have my doubts. The exhaust seems to smell fine at least. Is the exhaust..modular? or serviceable without welding equipment? Are there common areas where the exhaust system leaks on these cars so I could check those first?
 
Generally, yes, there are usual problem areas. The front downpipe to converter junction likes to corrode and the junction just in front of each muffler and the outlet of the front muffler. Those locations leak first.

When buying any used car. You will almost always need tires, battery, exhaust. These are some of the main reasons people get rid of their car. I plan on all three when buying cars and if you don't have to do one of them it's a bonus cause you may need to fix other stuff anyway.
 
If it's a strong smell, I'd say chances are it is upstream of the cat. I know on 240s if there is a leak under the hood, it will come through the cabin vents, not sure about 940s. I'd check around the turbo and the manifold first. That will also eat into your fuel economy if it is upstream of the O2 sensor.
 
Generally, yes, there are usual problem areas. The front downpipe to converter junction likes to corrode and the junction just in front of each muffler and the outlet of the front muffler. Those locations leak first.

When buying any used car. You will almost always need tires, battery, exhaust. These are some of the main reasons people get rid of their car. I plan on all three when buying cars and if you don't have to do one of them it's a bonus cause you may need to fix other stuff anyway.

I've discovered that the intermediate pipe leading to the muffler, over the axle has a huge leak using the old shop vac & duct tape trick. Thankfully, I was able to find the parts on FCPEuro for around 20 bucks for clamps and intermediate pipe, I can't get under the car too well at the time but I'm hoping that I can replace this with a floor jack and jack stands. Thank you everyone for your help!
 
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