Noticed something weird this week, there’s a faint exhaust smell creeping into the cabin when I’m sitting in traffic with the blower on, and it’s stronger when the AC is set to recirculate which seems backwards to me. No check engine light, car drives fine, but I’ve had a headache after a couple of longer drives and I’m starting to wonder if that’s related or if I’m just tired. I had the rear section welded about a year ago after a similar issue, so my first thought is that the patch has started to fail or there’s a leak further forward that wasn’t spotted. I found a page where you can see more on exhaust leak symptoms and it mentioned that cabin smell usually means the leak is before the catalytic converter, which would explain why it’s so noticeable. Should I be avoiding driving it until someone looks at it, or is a small leak something you can safely live with for a week or two? I’d rather not be dramatic about it but carbon monoxide isn’t exactly something I want to gamble with either.
.
