99 Contour - Exhaust Smell inside car!!

[guitarpicker2424]

I have a 99 Contour 2.0 DOHC with 135k miles. I have had very few problems with the car. For the past 1.5 years, I have noticed a smell inside the car, worse when the A/C or Heat are on. It's smells like exhaust, or a very noxious smell, but not strong enough to make me sick. I have gone to a muffler shop to see if I was leaking exhaust, but they could not detect any along the exhaust pipe. Recently, I had to replace the timing belt, tentioner, pulley, etc. When I replaced the pulley's, there was literally plastic melted on the pulleys. I thought that would have been the source of my smell, but it's still there.

Any ideas? It's driving me craze! The car runs good, there are no Check Engine lights on, so I'm stumped.

[Sevec]

when we had that problem we found a cabin filter under the dash might want to check if yours has one and replace it? It helped, might yours too. :>

[rpursifu]

I have smelled "exhaust" in every Contour I have ever driven. I am recently reminded of the stink in my CNG Contour that I just bought. Did changing the cabin air filter fix the stink? (I think the stink smells like burning oil on an exhaust manifold.)