Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox
2 injuries 2 of the 7 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin gets reported
There are 7 reports of exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 1,500 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 an injury is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 1,500 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2016 has 7. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Exhaust fumes leaking into driver cabin, horrible toxic odor, family got sick from being inside of vehicle. Stationary, or in motion. Toxic odors and same health effects when not running. Oder on clothing, hair, skin. Immediate adverse health symptoms associated with being in vehicle are headache, chemical taste in mouth, sore throat. I noticed condition 1/22/2016 but it was present prior to this as I do not use vehicle often. My wife and youngest daughter had most exposure and it built up over time, for they were desensitized to the odor. After a few days of not using vehicle my wife did smell the toxic odor. An exhaust leak was the cause and verified by dealer. After repairs were made vehicle still has horrific odor and the same adverse health effects were experienced. Other people who were exposed to vehicle also experienced same health symptoms.
Exhaust fumes leaking into driver cabin, horrible toxic odor, family got sick from being inside of vehicle. Stationary, or in motion. Toxic odors and same health effects when not running. Oder on clothing, hair, skin. Immediate adverse health symptoms associated with being in vehicle are headache, chemical taste in mouth, sore throat. I noticed condition 1/22/2016 but it was present prior to this as I do not use vehicle often. My wife and youngest daughter had most exposure and it built up over time, for they were desensitized to the odor. After a few days of not using vehicle my wife did smell the toxic odor. An exhaust leak was the cause and verified by dealer. After repairs were made vehicle still has horrific odor and the same adverse health effects were experienced. Other people who were exposed to vehicle also experienced same health symptoms.
This vehicle made my family sick. I had to picket dealership where I bought car, because g.m head quarters closed the case and left me with this toxic vehicle. A lot has happened in my quest to have the car replaced. A gm dealership where I did not buy car from bought me out of my lease and got me into a new vehicle. I physically picketed dealership I bought car from and other gm dealerships to get my point across. I still have contaminated clothing and the dealership is stuck with this vehicle now, and I still have health concerns about my family. I have called the epa, and other agencies and none of them can help. This vehicle should never get into another individuals possession. I have attached some pictures and files. This is my second complaint. Original nhsta complaint number is 10862571 exhaust fumes seeped into vehicle from exhaust leak and contaminated interior of vehicle making my wife and child sick.dealership replaced exhaust system but car was still contaminated. Please contact me at gmcargotmyfamilysick@gmail.com
Also reported on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox
Other engine problem
Other visibility problem
Excessive oil consumption
Oil leak
Wiper or washer failure
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 7 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 7 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin happen on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 1,500 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1,400 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed