Scotty

The changes are drastic...totally different. Air on the 2nd gens for cowl goes in the middle. On 3rd gens it goes outboard somewhat. I tried a fix it yourself approach with two different ideas...no fix. The cowl is nearly blocked completely, if I block it completely it will fill with water from rain or melted snow.

Blow by comes off the front on 2nd gens. It has a bottle on some years that has holes near the top.
3rd gens...03 and 04 has a filter on top of the valve cover under the plastic cover on top of engine. Vent hose drops down between starter and block...I extended this back to fuel tank on frame rail...no help.

hmmmm buy back....hmmmmm 325 600 in dark black.

rjweiss

Well I'll tell you it ain't the blow-by tube I added a 7 foot section of tubing to extend it back to the rear axle and it made NO difference.

When it gets warmer I'm taking off the plastic valve cover and see how that blow-by oil separator works, there must be another exit path for the blow-by fumes.

Or maybe it is exhaust, not crankcase fumes. But when I switched to Delvac 1, oil the smell sure changed.

Ron W.

SBishop

Extending the blow-by tube helped for me. I added a section long enough for it to exit just in front of the left rear wheel. The only time I get the smell in the cab now is when I am parked with the wind from the left rear quarter.

I don't park like that very much!!

FiverBob

I am amazed by all this. My 2003 still smells like a new truck inside and it is now 14 months old. I wonder what is different in these trucks and why one would have fumes and the other doesn't? Doesn't make sense. I think it is penguin droppings in that wonderful rear flat floor. Scotty is just sweeping them all under the floor.

HidingFromTheBigGuyBob

Scotty

The most recent feedback is its in the colder climates that this occurs. Anybody care to venture a guess why?
Its a bit of a mystery.

scottywithnopenguinsinthetruckasIwouldbehauledaway foranimalabusewiththefumes.

jthorpe

That's weird. I never noticed a cab smell until recently when it was very cold. The only thing I can think of is something in the heating system, or some kind of solenoid that changes the characteristics of the truck when it's cold outside? The weird thing is that even when the truck warms up, I can still smell it. Only goes away when the weather is above 25 degrees or so. WEIRD, and appears to be a fairly common issue now. This could be a recall in the making since people could get sick from this.

joel

Maybe this is a dumb question, but does oil blowby smell like diesel exhaust? The original post and many of us have chimed in to say we have DIESEL EXHAUST fumes in our cabs. Half of the replies say move your blowby hose. It's oil. It's engine paint buring off. It's whatever. In my experience, oil and new engine coatings smell NOTHING like burned diesel. So, my question, does the oil blow by also carry with it burned diesel exhaust?

Also, I didn't start smelling this until it cooled down here. While it was hot and the AC was running, never had the smell.

Oh yeah, "it's a diesel, it's supposed to smell" isn't an even remotely acceptable answer for not only smelly but potentially incapacitating gasses (not of my own origin!) entering the cab. Eventually, after a couple lawsuits or something, there'll have to be a recall to fix it.

SBishop

Blowby is exhaust gas that instead of going out the exhaust valves, exhaust manifold, turbo, exhaust pipe, goes by the piston rings into the crankcase and then out the vent tube. Same thing goes on in gassers except the vent tube is routed back into the intake manifold via the PCV valve.

kry226

So, by that rationale, Scotty may have some valve train issues then? Maybe the exhaust valves aren't "exhausting" like they should be (possibly from cold temps?) and he's getting more exhaust than he should be getting from the blow-by tube? Of course, this would probably have other symptoms as well, huh? Good luck Scotty.

GONZO86

I have been having the same problem with the strong exhaust smell in the cab of my 2003 dodge. I wrote diamler chrysler a letter a month ago stating that i needed this problem fixed immediately as the dealership isnt doing anything to help. Today I recieved a call back from them stating that if the probelm isnt fixed during our next appointment with our dealership then we could get rid of the vehicle. I asked what he meant by that. He told me "well you could trade it in". I advised him that I just bought the truck a year ago and shouldnt have to trade it in and I would think that by purchasing a truck over $35K they would do what they could to fix the problem. He tried to tell me there are no records of this problem. I advised him that there has been several complaints and know for a fact that I am not the only one on file there and would like to speak to someone else that can help me resolve this issue. He refused to let me speak to anyone else. I asked if he would rather wait for an accident or death to result from this issue and deal with a lawsuit. He them told me if problem isnt getting fixed and I dont want to trade it in then I can look into the state lemon law procedure. I called the state attorney general and was told that this doesnt fall under the lemon laws and I will need to work with diamler chrysler to get this issue fixed. So far there has been no resolution to this problem and I highly recommend that if any of you are having the same exhaust problems and they are not being fixed to take it to diamler chrysler. I will fight with them as well to try to get this problem fixed.

Thanks,
Gonzo86

Smokeman

I also have this issue from time to time. This is the first diesel pickup I've owned so I did not kow what to expect. I removed the cowl and taped off the holes allowing engine compartment air to get into the heater intake. This did improve the problem but it was still there. I asked a co-worker how his '02 CTD was and he said he too has exhaust fumes in the cab when stopped at lights from time to time. I see it is also a problem on the ford trucks from reading I have done at thedieselstop.com. I did carry a small CO monitor in the truck for curiosity sake and found that when warming the vehicle in cold weather if the wind is in the right direction the cowl pulls in the fumes and the CO would read up to 45 ppm. I put the monitor in the other vehicles warming beside mine at work and it was the same reading. About all you can do to minimize this is switch the heater fan to recirculate when you are stopped at lights etc. I suppose all kinds of gasoline exhaust has been sifting into our vehicles for years but you don't notice it til you drive a diesel. When I drove a gasser I noticed diesel fumes coming in my cab when a diesel truck was parked beside me too. It might be just the way it is butif there is a way to prevent it I'd sure like to find it. Btw...I did report mine to the dealer and to transport canada.

Brian

wickedsprint

Our engines do the same thing, ours is caused by having open PCV with the drain tube at the front of the engine, you might check this...when I use rotella..you can smell it from a mile away for awhile.

BSciosciaJr

I TOO HAVE THIS PROBLEM AND I HAVE TO CHANGE THE OIL SO MY QUESTION IS WHICH OIL SEEMS TO BE THE LEAST SMELLIEST?