Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6 HDi - missing pipe = smell in cabin?

[Peter C]

Gents.

 

My wife has a 2009 Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6 HDi manual. Actually a decent little car.

 

Problem:

 

When driving along there are no smells in the cabin. When the car is stationary with the A/C circulation button switched off (so air is drawn into the cabin) there is a noticeable strong exhaust / engine smell after a few seconds of stopping. With the circulation button on (no fresh air enters the cabin) the smell goes away but in cold and wet weather the windows steam up.

 

What I found:

 

Under the bonnet of our car I saw this:

 

 

A photo taken from Google shows that we are missing a pipe:

 

 

I understand that the bit of pipe that we are missing is for the air filter cold feed.

 

Question:

 

Surely the missing air filter intake pipe (if that's all that missing) would not cause smells inside the cabin?

 

Any ideas how the smell could be getting in?

 

I've looked at various C4 related forums but can't find a sensible answer.

 

There must be shiter with knowledge of these engines?

 

Help!

[Arthur Foxhake]

The landlord of my local had similar, the tubo was leaking on the hot side and belching exhaust fumes into the engine bay.

Does your turbo have soot around it?

His did.

[Peter C]

The landlord of my local had similar, the tubo was leaking on the hot side and belching exhaust fumes into the engine bay.

Does your turbo have soot around it?

His did.

You wouldn’t eat your dinner off it but it’s not too bad.

[sierraman]

I’d check for a blowing manifold gasket, does it have a diesel smell to it? If so the injector seals are a possibility on this particular unit.

[Peter C]

I’d check for a blowing manifold gasket, does it have a diesel smell to it? If so the injector seals are a possibility on this particular unit.

Manifold gasket looks ok, injector seals may need looking at. But why is the smell so strong in the cabin?

[Dave_Q]

If the Picasso is anything like my C8 the inlet for the cabin air is just above the engine.

[chancer]

Good call on injector seals. Should be pretty obvious...the leaking seals will have black crystal like deposits around injector

[sierraman]

You’ll probably hear the injector seals it’ll make a chuffing sound sometimes. Try nipping them up first but not too tight.

[Peter C]

Ok, cheers guys, I’ll have a look at the injector seals.

[stephen01]

We had new injector seals @ 55k and our exhaust smell went away,