Push the recirculate air button, but still get exhaust fumes from outside?

clifton that actuator should be accessible thru glove box make sure its the one clicking as that vehicle may have 4 of them and shouldnt have to remove dash for recircualtion actuator make sure check plastic door actuator clips to as they have bad habit of breaking or stripping

air for the inside of the car comes from the vent at the base of the windscreen or is recirculated inside the car
if you see what appears to be mist, fog or smoke from the ac vents ,it is extra cold air from the ac system that is seen as fog when it hits the air in the car
you will know exhaust fumes by the smell

OUTSIDE AIR: Press this button to direct the system to use outside air.
Pressing the OUTSIDE AIR button will cancel the RECIRCULATION button.

RECIRCULATION: Press this button to limit the amount of outside air entering your vehicle.
This is helpful when you are trying to limit odors entering your vehicle or attempting to quickly cool down the interior. Pressing RECIRCULATION will recirculate air continuously.

RECIRCULATION is used when the fan control is OFF to limit odors, outside air and dust from entering your vehicle. All button lights will go off. The last setting selected will activate when the blower is turned back on.
Pressing the RECIRCULATION button will cancel the OUTSIDE AIR button. To return to normal operation and to prevent stale air, be sure to return the OUTSIDE AIR.

Between HEATER and BLEND mode, outside air is forced to reduce window fogging. If the RECIRCULATION button is pressed, the LED indicator will flash three times indicating that forced outside air is activated and RECIRCULATION is not available.

I think what your experiencing is normal. If you want to keep cold air form coming into the cabin, press the recirc button.

I hope this helped,

It has a separate recirulation button, press this and it recirculates the inside air and stops the outside air from coming in,

I emphasize with you on this problem. If you are smelling fumes you are inhaling car "exhaust" which is extremely dangerous as you know. I have a 1999 Passat that had a "fume" issue that baffled me for over a year. Your description of the conditions that you smell the fumes may not be complete enough for me to definitively say what your problem is but I will tell you what I experienced and discovered on my car. I only smelled the fumes when my heat or AC was on and the car was NOT moving forward. Also, if the AC recirculate button was on I didn't smell the problem as bad. So, what I found was that the car's emission control piping was leaking the exhaust fumes that bypass the pistons and go into the crankcase. These fumes are normally piped back into the intake manifold to be re-burned to reduce emissions. With a completed disintegrated rubber emissions pipe coming off the engine block, the fumes entered into the engine compartment which is sealed from the interior of the car. So, how did the fumes get in my car? Well, when waiting at a red light and with the heat or AC on (no recirculate) the fumes would fill the engine compartment and overflow out the wheel wells and wrap over the hood to the intake vents (near the wiper blades) of the car's interior air system. If the recirculate button is pressed with the AC on, the car's interior air (no exterior air) is recirculated inside the car to cool it faster and I didn't smell the fumes as bad. Also on windy days the fumes didn't get a chance to wrap over the hood and get into the intake vents. Because of the unique conditions that had to occur in order to smell or not smell the fumes it was a difficult problem to solve. By the way, the disintegrated rubber pipe was almost impossible to see and there is no real reference material to read that describes the location and depiction of the emissions plumbing. I hope this helps you!

Look for a bad gasket where the pipe connects to the manifold. Could just be loose bolts or a bad gasket.

On the dash there is a switch/lever that allows you to select fresh outside air or recirculate the air in the cab. Any smell may be coming in the freash air position which would allow smelly air from the engine to come into the car. Check for broken flexible exhaust piece or leaking gaskets around the cat converter to start with or a hole in the exhaust pipe inself

has some one messed with the recirculation control so that by moving the lever/knob will shut the vent off
if they have , there is a problem that you will have to fix first

now i do know that on some vehicles i dont know about yours but the air recirculation only works in certain switch locations.

is the car on recirculate or fresh air? air from your aircon comes through the bottom of your front windscreen, make sure its clear and free of leaves or anything that can cause blockage to stop it from become damp inside the aircon ducts. if it is definately petrol fumes you may have an exhaust leaking from your engine bay, releasing the fumes into your cabin, that is the most common reason for petrol fumes in your aircon.