How do you check for exhaust fumes in the cab?

Might be a dumb question but here goes...

Is there some type of exhaust detector/meter that can check if exhaust fumes are making there way into your passenger area?

If have 2 small kids that I love cruising around with but lately I'm having this strange fear of them passing out from exhaust fumes while strapped into their car seats. I look in the rear view mirror and they're all knocked out in there car seats and I wonder... are they asleep or did the gas get them???

It’s not like I'm blowing open headers into a hot rod or anything. I'm mostly concerned about my station wagon and the exhaust coming in while the tailgate window is down or with too much exhaust creeping in through any other small hole.

Is this an irrational fear?

 

Get a CO detector from Walgreens or Home Depot or somewhere.

Put it in the cab (after installing batteries).

Drive until it hurts your ears.

If ears do not hurt, continue driving.

Cosmo

 

Hell, have my old-lady ride with ya. She's always detectin' gas emissions in the car.

(sorry - I digress)

 

Run it up for a while, read the paper, do a crossword, rubic cube, whatever. Check your pulse, if its stopped, you have a problem.....
Easy!
Next question.

 

Get a parakeet - when the bird falls off the perch - stop and get some fresh air. Maybe the CO detector would be better - the kids won't get attached to it.

 

There was a Real Stories From the ER show that had a girl that had repeated headaches. It turned out to be a '57 chevy her dad restored leaking exhaust in the car. The only way they found it was when the doctor walked her out to her car and she offered him a dirve. During the drive they both had head aches. A blood test was done and found to be co2 poising.

I don't trust mine I will take it to an exhaust place and have them check it out.

I took a car in for a new pipe and had them check it. They ran the car on the hoist and we looked/felt for leaks at each joint. Amazing how many we found from welds that looked good.

 

If you live in a cold climate, back it out of the garage in the winter and look all along the pipes. You will see the exhaust, just like you do your breath in the cold air.

 

Your fears are only irrational because I agree. I had an '86 towncar/wagon I disabled the back window closed always.

 

Canary will work too...

 

It's generally not a good idea to run with the back window of a wagon open and kids in the rear.

As noted above if you or the kids feel real quesy, headache, almost feel like hurling but can't, you better get out and get fresh air.

 

Your post reminded me of a situation a couple of years ago where a dude was driving his pickup truck with his kids in the bed. The truck had a camper shell on it and an exhaust pipe that didn't fully exit the underside of the bed. Well the guy got stuck in traffic for a while and the bed/camper shell filled with CO and the kids perished. Very sad.

 

You have every reason to be paranoid. A neigbor of ours drove across town in her Mercury Station Wagon to pick up her sister and Mother and come back to the house for a little afternoon coffee klatch and gossip session. When they got back to the house, the driver got our of the car and walked three steops and fell to the ground, the passenger door opened and Momma just fell out, the other sister got out screaming in horror. The girl's husband dashed out of the house, we helped load them all into his van, and he blasted off for the hospital 6 blocks away. Hours later he returned. They were all on oxygen and had been close to serious serious in jury. One of teh sisters was pregnant but luckily had no problem later with delivery and the baby was OK too.
Have that exhaust checked out, check with CO2 alarm, keep your eye on those kids all the time.

 

Keep the tailgate glass up gooz.

We had a beat up 65 Country Wagon that was running a little rich one day and with the tailgate glass down we were all choking in it. Keep your drivers window or pass window down untill you get it checked out. make sure the tips extend way past the quarters/ bumpers too.

 

One thing to remember, after about 20 seconds, the brain seems to disregard the smell- as in you don't notice any more but it's still there. I learned this the hard way in a 65 bug driving outside of tucson one winter. I got pulled over for a "roadside safety check" by the tucson highway patrol. When I got out of the car I could barely stand on my own. I was pretty much out of it. The policeman probably saved my life. The bug had a cracked heat exchanger.

 

Canaries can be unreliable,
Try kittens!
CHAZ

 

Interesting. I thought I was the only one that had ever thought about this on the HAMB. So my guess is that's it's still one of those 1 in 1,000,000 type deals but it does happen.

I have a deflector that sits on the roof and runs along the top of the rear window. I thought these were designed to keep exhaust out. Any idea on wether or not this is true .. or if they work?

 

Throw in a cat and start car and let run for a while. If cat passes out you have a problem.

I like cats. My next door neighbors cat will sit and watch me work on
my car.

 

Stop by the local firehall.The boys should do a quick carbon monoxide scan for you! They have more reliable shit than Walmart....

 

I thought those deflectors were for snow... I could be wrong though

 

very good question a lot of pepole dont no it but it s there,some fire dept. have detorsand will help you out ,smog test will help too. aka alley

 

I heard a true story about someone on a jetski towing someone else around on an inner tube, after half an hour the person on the inner tube died of co2 poisoning.

 

I strongly agree with the carbon monoxide detector idea. I got a rude awakening after I bought a travel trailer and started parking it in the shop. I had left the door open on it while I had my truck running in the shop with the shop door wide open. There was an east wind blowing in the door and apparently wasnt letting the fumes exit. The CO detector in the trailer started going off. I couldn't even smell the fumes. I leave the trailer door open all the time now. Later it started going off every time I ran the shop heater. I thought I had a birdnest in the flue. No birdnest. Took out the burners and dumped a butt load of soot out of each one. No more problem. I think I'll invest in a few more CO detectors!

 

Cheap CO detectors are available ;

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ps/carbinmonoxidedetectors.html

 

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THese are to help keep the road crap off the rear window when driving in wet weather.

 

I guess that I need to fix my floors before I go for any kind of a real drive in the wagon! I just pulled out a few chunks of rusty floor boards and the muffler is right under my feet just bolted inline.

That and I know I have a leak where the header hits the pipe under the hood too.

Good idea on the CO2 checks! Before I strap my kids in the wagon for the saturday snow cone runs I will have to go over the exhaust a couple of times.

 

Betcha in the future a carbon monoxide detector will be a standard feature on a new car.That is if they still have fossil fuel.....

 

get the CO monitor now, it is carbon monoxide poisioning that damaged my brain and makes it impossible for me to get away from hot rods. take care of your kids now before they turn out like me!

 

this may sound very stupid but kids and pets sit lower in the car than anyone else and fumes will get to them first !This comes from a carbon monoxide poisoning survivor and this is exactly what my parents were told by the doctors that treated me They are closer to the source and have smaller lung capacity than adults so the concentration of fumes is deadlier to them earlier than the adults they are riding with.

 

bad case of hot rod poisoning here too! I think its from being concieved in the back seat of a 50 chevy in the wintertime with the motor running!

 

All the old longroofs exaust would run to the rear and turn out to the side .If it pointed stright out the back witch looks cooler it will suck fumes into rear window when gate window was up.