My fiance has a 2006 Saturn Vue with the Ecotec 4 cyl that smells very strongly of burning exhaust on startup. It doesn't usually last for more than a minute though and the smell isn't apparent when driving it around or sitting at a red light. My best guess is an exhaust leak somewhere near the manifold, but I haven't been able to visually identify any cracks. Any common failure points on these cars that could help me pinpoint the source of the smell? This thing is an absolute beater so I'm hoping it's nothing too involved to fix it.
I dont know of the smell but I did own a 4cy Vue for many years. Like a lot of things GM, it wasn't until the final years that GM got the cars "right" and then they killed the car the following year. My point being, there are many reasons over many years that Vues got a bad reputation but the 4cyl for 2006&7 is pretty good. By that time they ditched the crappy awd on the 4cyl so what you have is just fwd and really not problematic. Overall, it just GM parts bin. Same 4cyl as the Cobalt of the era. Very underpowered for the aero drag of the big box shape and poorly geared for quiet hyw travel. They do not return good mpg, like you might hope from a 4cyl.
The plastic panels keep the car looking fresh but there very well could be rust hidden underneath. The tailgates of all are metal and the 2006 rusts badly above the license plate.
Ecotecs crack the exhaust manifold between 2 and 3. Very common. You will hear it before you smell it; exhaust leaks that close to the ports tend to pull more air in than they push gases out. They usually grenade the oxygen sensor before you can hear it, too. O2 sensors do not like having cold air blowing directly on them.
Any chance some critter didn't hide its food stash somewhere?
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I suppose it's a possibility, this car was in a front end collision before she got it and it sat for a little while before she was able to put it back on the road. But the smell has been getting stronger lately, and she's been driving it daily for almost two years now, so I suspect the manifold crack is more likely. Perhaps that's why it only smells bad at startup, maybe there's not enough flow of exhaust gasses when the engine is turning over to pull in outside air and the exhaust from the starting engine escapes from the header crack until it turns over.
That is what happened when the exhaust manifold cracked on my father's focus. To find crack I hooked up shop vac blower side to muffler and found air blowing out crack.
