Fumes even on recirculate

[DaveEV]

I think what bugs him is that when the heater controls are in the "off" postion, for what ever reason there appears to be fresh air still coming in the car. I can agree that my 2013 S has a slight push of fresh outside air at speed while the heather control is in the off postion.......funny I thought it was crazy untill I just read this post....

That's been my experience in just about every car I've owned. Unless you put the hvac into recirc mode, even with the fan off you get some outside air entering the car because the hvac inlet is usually in a high pressure zone of the car at the base of the windshield.

 

[jawshoeaw]

I'll obsess about this some more tomorrow. For now, with the fan blowing, I get fumes, even if recirculate is on. I'll see if the dealer would be willing to take a look.

Funny thing - I was driving past a muffler shop today and I did a double take. Gas stations, muffler shops, jiffy lube, etc. there's this huge, weird part of the economy out there tied up with internal combustion. Gave me a weird feeling - like being in the past and the present simultaneously.

 

[rubear]

My 2013 has a recirc button.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Well, I guess I should have been more clear in my original post.

So of course there is a "recirculate" button on my Leaf but i noticed that when I turned it on to avoid a big blue cloud of smoke I was about to drive through, it didn't really work, that is, I still smelled fumes. In my Prius, and pretty much every car I've ever driven, recirculate meant close to zero outside air, at least according to my nose. In my Prius, the recirc button means I don't smell anything except myself. :lol: But today, in my Leaf, I was smelling some gasser's catalytic converter dumping sulfurous fumes going up a hill. No air conditioning, no heat, just fan and recirc. I'm going to do a test with some incense and report back what I find. then I'm going to find a charcoal filter of some sort and kludge it in next to the cabin filter if possible. Maybe my recirc door is just a little sticky? I can hear it making a noise like a soft click.

Anyhow, when i called and asked to speak to the Leaf certified technician, he told me that the Leaf has a common manifold in front of the windshield (under plastic cover) that directs air both into the cabin and into the battery compartment. Whatever. He then told me specifically that the Leaf does not have a 100% recirculate, that it just reduces outside air. Maybe he's full of it, but that's what my car is doing. I like my wife's prius with the pollen setting, but I always found recirc to be enough. And her car never fogs up - what is up with the leaf and fogging? I suspect this is why nissan decided to engineer in a little fresh air at all times.

FWIW, when I took off the inspection hatch over the high voltage disconnect, I could feel an immediate breeze blowing up into the car, but i'm not sure that is contiguous with the batteries themselves.

you are following a car and you see it smoking away several hundred yards ahead of you so you close the vent to prevent that smell from coming in?

what you are smelling is probably lingering in the air from before. In my LEAF, if I have the vent open for 2 minutes, it takes 10 for the smell to go away but mostly because there is no outside air coming in to force the bad air out so you are fighting a losing battle. I did like the ionization mode the Prius had. My Son has Asthma so when we went thru a particularly thick cloud, we would run that thing thru a few cycles

I also dont think my LEAF is air tight anyway (its water tight which is essential where I live) because we have a Mushroom Farm (one of the largest in the area) and it reeks (that is a HUGE understatement) so I close the vent in anticipation of passing by but still get a whiff of the place anyway.

I would consider getting an ionizer for the car. have not looked but guessing they have all kinds made for a car