interior smell

Hello all,

I have a 2000 passat 1.8T. For over a year we have had an exhaust smell that is intermittent inside the cabin. it is the worst when idling at a standstill i.e. red lights, stopsigns, etc. Have had the car to VW dealer and independent european repair shop with no success. The smell and its frequency has gotten worse over the past year. The independent garage owner placed his computerized sniffer inside the cabin and it didn't show any carbon monoxide or volatiles(sp?). Sometimes the smell is so strong it burns the eyes.

I love my passat, but am really tired of the smell! Any ideas?

Thanks,

Eric

I have a 97 Passat TDI and it has teh same problem. Every time I come to a stop I have to push the air re-circulation button to keep the fumes out of the cabin. Every garage I've gone to says the car is putting out normal emissions and pressure tests reveal no exhaust system leaks. It's a great car - but this is enough to make me reconsider! Any ideas?

The smell is not exhaust but oil fumes from the engine compartment. The design flaw here is that the interior air intake and filter are in the engine bay. When moving, the bay is ventilated but stopped, the fumes are drawn in. My '98 1.8T leaks like a seive so, other than keeping the engine operating-room clean, I don't see a solution

I have a 2002 Passat with 52K miles and I just began experiencing the "smell" problems. It appears that the smell is coming from the interior vents and it smells like exhaust or oil. I have noticed the smell when the car is at a stop and I accelerate but also when I am driving at full-speed there is often a surge of exhaust. Does anyone know if the 2002 Passat has the same design flaw discussed by "jbuster" such that the interior air intake and the filter are in the engine bay?

thanks
mc

Make sure they check to see if the ignition switch is not shorting out...
My wifes passat had this problem - we could smell something burning for six months but had no real problems - until one night the lights went out, turn signals did not work, and the emerg. break switch shorted out...
All this caused by a faulty / shorted out ignition switch - melting other wires...

I had the same problem too with my 2000 passat GLX. I got my cam seals leaking the oil. After they were fixed I don't get this smell anymore.
Ven