Hey guys,

My car has this rotten egg gas smell coming from the exhaust . It only happens when you drive the car normal, but when you give it a bit for a while it goes away. Its got a new exhaust from the cat back but has an exec muffler on it. Fuel consumption hasn't changed any. I've switch flues, from shell v-power to BP-ultimate. but the smell is still there.

any ideas, its a 2000 TJ sports btw with 124,000 on the clock

the cat needs replacing

the cat needs replacing

damm it :rant: , thats what warranty is for he he

I agree its the cat. happened to a mate of mine.

Mike

My cat smells but I just keep the air con on recirculate so it can't enter the cabin. Usually only noticable after spirited driving anyway.

My cat smells but I just keep the air con on recirculate so it can't enter the cabin. Usually only noticable after spirited driving anyway.

but mine doesn't come through the air con, you only notice it if you sitting at the lights or turned the car off

could it be clutch burn? mine does it when i ride it or if its got a load

could it be clutch burn? mine does it when i ride it or if its got a load

i've smeltt clutch burn with my old second gen and this smells nothing like it

put an aftermarket low restriction cat on, they much cheaper than a genuine one

put an aftermarket low restriction cat on, they much cheaper than a genuine one

how much is an after market one worth , the car is under 3 years warranty so ill think i might juts take it back to them

cant remember exactly but i thought it was a pretty good price, 250 mabey. but if it is covered under warrenty go genuine, as you wouldnt see any gains on a stock car.

rotten egg smell = catalytic converter is buggered.

This can either enhance or degrade the performance of your car depending on how the honeycomb has deteriorated..


how much is an after market one worth , the car is under 3 years warranty so ill think i might juts take it back to them

Metalcat 3" = $250 (probably less for the magna as it would be a smaller diameter.)

thats bad advice people! The rotten egg smell is a bi-product of what happens when fuel vapour is being put through the cat, this is a sign of a car running rich and allowing fuel to reach the converter in excess quantities. The reason why the cat is replaced is because neat petrol will destroy the innards of the cat as it overheats. Get the car on a lift if possible and shake the cat gently. If it rattles at all, its dead.

Check that the o2 sensor is not faulty, always a good place to start if running rich. Also, if you are using super unleaded (98 octane plus), drop to premium or normal and see if it still happens. The knock sensor can sometimes be inaccurate and allow the timing to run too rich.

Are you getting bad fuel consumption?

woops just read that fuel consumption is normal in first post. Whats your definition of normal? How many k's are you getting to the tank?

thats bad advice people! The rotten egg smell is a bi-product of what happens when fuel vapour is being put through the cat, this is a sign of a car running rich and allowing fuel to reach the converter in excess quantities. The reason why the cat is replaced is because neat petrol will destroy the innards of the cat as it overheats. Get the car on a lift if possible and shake the cat gently. If it rattles at all, its dead.

Check that the o2 sensor is not faulty, always a good place to start if running rich. Also, if you are using super unleaded (98 octane plus), drop to premium or normal and see if it still happens. The knock sensor can sometimes be inaccurate and allow the timing to run too rich.

Are you getting bad fuel consumption?

3rd gens dont have a knock sensor


shake the cat gently. If it rattles at all, its dead
lol i thought that bit was funny

if 3rd gens dont have a knock sensor, how does the engine adjust to different octane fuel? Please dont tell me its an old skool RON plug lol

And yes shaking the household cat is unlikely to make it rattle. Unless its dead

if 3rd gens dont have a knock sensor, how does the engine adjust to different octane fuel? Please dont tell me its an old skool RON plug lol

And yes shaking the household cat is unlikely to make it rattle. Unless its dead

They don't adjust for different fuels, this amoungst other thing is why magnas don't really gain power from higher octane fuels, only the cleaning of the fuel system aspect.

If it's the problem with the cat then why is the rotten egg smell there sometimes and not all the time?

If it's the problem with the cat then why is the rotten egg smell there sometimes and not all the time?
I seem to only get it when "spiritedly" driving as well, and my own explanation is that the cat isn't completely gone, it still works to a degree, however when using WOT it's not effective enough.

thanks for all the replys, i the best I've got around town was 602ks on the highway , i went to kandos a few weeks back i got 750 out of a tank. ill put the car up on jack stands this arvo to see if it rattles. as I've said i have tried different fuels and still no luck. how do you test that the O2 sensor is buggered.

I seem to only get it when "spiritedly" driving as well, and my own explanation is that the cat isn't completely gone, it still works to a degree, however when using WOT it's not effective enough.

cat converters need to heat up in order to work correctley, and stay in an optimum temperature range, so thrashing will raise the temperature of the cat, and when its cold it will also not work correctley. having a damaged cat mabey its only working within a narrower temp band. im not to sure, and have a look into why your cat has been damaged

cat is broken cos of too much turbroes

cat converters need to heat up in order to work correctley, and stay in an optimum temperature range, so thrashing will raise the temperature of the cat, and when its cold it will also not work correctley. having a damaged cat mabey its only working within a narrower temp band. im not to sure, and have a look into why your cat has been damaged
Yeh hasn't affected my fuel consumption so not too worried at the moment, plan to replace with a metal cat 3" eventually.

Yeh hasn't affected my fuel consumption so not too worried at the moment, plan to replace with a metal cat 3" eventually.

sorry to change topic slightly or high-jack the thread slightly......what r the different cats? and how differently do they operate? performance?

sorry to change topic slightly or high-jack the thread slightly......what r the different cats? and how differently do they operate? performance?

Theres no real difference in terms of the cat itself.. Just the quality of parts used, welding etc..


Metalcat are a fairly decent, yet cheap brand to use.

you are lucky, your car only has one cat.

both of mine are buggered :doubt:

you are lucky, your car only has one cat.

both of mine are buggered :doubt:

Gut em and gain a few extra kw's

Gut em and gain a few extra kw's
hahahaha that will keep that $600-700 for repairs in my pocket :bowrofl:

got under the car yesterday and gave the cat the old shake,no rattles. you couldn't hear anything moving around inside. i have a felling that the O2 sensor is stuffed. how munch for a new one??

my old man thinks its got to do with the rear muffler seeing that is an exec muffler on it?

Beware some of the cheaper cats.

Highflow simply means that the manufacturer has used the absolute minimum material to pass emissions inspections (and most cant guarantee that). Even though they are using a 400cpi biscuit - true highflow is a 300 or 200 cpi.

A lot of the cheapies will actually fall apart in 20,000K or less too - they highflow themselves :nuts:

Go with something like the magnaflow, US made, reasonably reliable - the metal substrate version is pretty good, next step up is the metalcat - its expensive though.

Anything under about $175 or so on ebay - avoid.

rotten egg smell = catalytic converter is buggered.

This can either enhance or degrade the performance of your car depending on how the honeycomb has deteriorated..



Metalcat 3" = $250 (probably less for the magna as it would be a smaller diameter.)

Just have to remember that the smell is hydrogen sulphide, and is there because of a break down in the chemical process within the CAT converter. It should still be physically in tact unless its been WAY WAY over heated or you have thrown a piston down the exhaust.

My TL is suffering from this also, but the smell is not always present. As far as fuel economy, at the moment the computer is saying 13.7. What are other owners getting? This is just daily commuting in peak hour and not a highway figure. Due for my 90'000 service soon so might get them to look at it.

It should still be physically in tact unless its been WAY WAY over heated or you have thrown a piston down the exhaust.Not necessarily; a physical hit can screw them, I recently took mine off to find that it was completely hollow. Further investigation found half of the honeycomb stuck in the middle of the middle muffler! Looked like it was instigated by a ding on the front of the cat (I think before I got the car; it used to bottom out a lot before I got replacement front shocks).

My TL is suffering from this also, but the smell is not always present. As far as fuel economy, at the moment the computer is saying 13.7. What are other owners getting? This is just daily commuting in peak hour and not a highway figure. Due for my 90'000 service soon so might get them to look at it.

i avg 11.9, i dont a specific time i drive, most of the time is fair traffis, others its peak hour, other times is quiet...so i suppose its an avg reading?

mine ranges anywhere from 12.1-13-7, thats around town

"Rotten Egg Gas" is quite a normal smell with the fuels we use here in Australia. It is the chemical reaction, usually at normal temp of around 400 deg that the sulpher in the fuel will react and make the rotten egg gas smell.

This is agian why oils should be changed frequently, the sulpher will react with the moisture being forced from the air and create h2so4 or sulphuric acid. This eats nicely at your bearings.

There are a few ways to test the cat, but in general, if it is not rattling I would not be too concerned about it. If you fuel consumption is ok again if it aint broke don't fix it.

It actually forms the majority of sulfurous acid H2S03, which when oxidised in air produces H2S04 (sulphuric acid)

http://www.ucc.ie/academic/chem/dolchem/html/comp/h2so3.html

Speaking of which, and sorry to hijack, but does anyone know where you can get sulphuric acid (aka "battery acid") nowadays? I need some for some anodising tests, but it's damned near impossible to find! (despite being the second-most produced chemical in the world behind water!)

thanks for all the replys, i the best I've got around town was 602ks on the highway , i went to kandos a few weeks back i got 750 out of a tank. ill put the car up on jack stands this arvo to see if it rattles. as I've said i have tried different fuels and still no luck. how do you test that the O2 sensor is buggered.

you said that you tried BP Ultimate and Shell V Power, both of those are 98RON. Try using 91 or 95 for a few weeks

Just have to remember that the smell is hydrogen sulphide, and is there because of a break down in the chemical process within the CAT converter. It should still be physically in tact unless its been WAY WAY over heated or you have thrown a piston down the exhaust.


they can actually degrade over time and just begin to fall apart inside.

Speaking of which, and sorry to hijack, but does anyone know where you can get sulphuric acid (aka "battery acid") nowadays? I need some for some anodising tests, but it's damned near impossible to find! (despite being the second-most produced chemical in the world behind water!)

try a few autoshops that sell dry state batterys (aka mower and motorbike batterys) you might get lucky and score a bottle here and there if you pick a silly salesperson :bowrofl:

how does the engine adjust to different octane fuel? Please dont tell me its an old skool RON plug lol

I had one of those on my 94 Holden Barina lol I ran it on 98 simply because on 91 it has even LESS power, and made an even worse noise when accelerating hard lol


how do you test that the O2 sensor is buggered.

I'd like to know this too, I've gotta see if mine is carboned up, and might as well see if it's working at all :P

I had one of those on my 94 Holden Barina lol I ran it on 98 simply because on 91 it has even LESS power, and made an even worse noise when accelerating hard lol



I'd like to know this too, I've gotta see if mine is carboned up, and might as well see if it's working at all :P

i wonder if its the same as a second gen where you detect a fault code. ill have a look in the workshop manual.

Speaking of which, and sorry to hijack, but does anyone know where you can get sulphuric acid (aka "battery acid") nowadays? I need some for some anodising tests, but it's damned near impossible to find! (despite being the second-most produced chemical in the world behind water!)

A decent ships chandlery should be able to sort you out, failing that, a chemical supply house. I do a bit of anodising myself and the hardest stuff to get hold of is the nitric acid! All sorts of hoops you have to jump through for conc. - solution is easier to get. Nasty **** though.

(although this could have something to do with the fact that you mix/soak it with just about ANY organic substance and you have an explosive = fun with A4 paper :bowrofl: - makes flashpaper, nitrocellulose etc etc) Dont try this at home kiddies.

Cheers
Heath Young

i wonder if its the same as a second gen where you detect a fault code. ill have a look in the workshop manual.

Just had a look and this is what it says

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/310/picture21mo2.th.png (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture21mo2.png)

Just had a look and this is what it says

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/310/picture21mo2.th.png (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture21mo2.png)

hmm, the part i don't get is the test harnes

Hey guys,
My car has this rotten egg gas smell

........Ya Pharted.......

I instantly apologise for this illicit use of schpam:spam:

........Ya Pharted.......

I instantly apologise for this illicit use of schpam:spam:

:bowrofl: , if that was the cause of the smell, then i would try and not do it lol

back on topic

I had one of those on my 94 Holden Barina lol I ran it on 98 simply because on 91 it has even LESS power, and made an even worse noise when accelerating hard lol


haha yeah i had a 1.2 8v in the UK for a year, and ran it on the 98 plug by turning it over and plugging it back in hahaha

Also had a GSi on throttle bodies. Probably one of the best 1.6 engines ever made. I have seen them making over 150kW in the UK WITHOUT forced induction. Saying that, it did have a 10,000RPM rev cut

i'm reviving this thread cuz i have bad case of this, especially just after i accelerate super hard.

Perry, did you find the cause of the smell?

i'm reviving this thread cuz i have bad case of this, especially just after i accelerate super hard.

Perry, did you find the cause of the smell?
the higher you rev the engine, the hotter the exhaust gets = http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-9/cats%20smelly%20cat%20by%20phoebe.gif ... lol

i'm reviving this thread cuz i have bad case of this, especially just after i accelerate super hard.

Perry, did you find the cause of the smell?

nope. it hasn't been doing it latley :nutts:

http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-9/cats%20smelly%20cat%20by%20phoebe.gif Took me a minute, but I got there...

hahaha
thats ok guys, i was just hopeful that there was another magical easy to fix reason for the rotton egg fart smell.

at least when my friends look at me and say ERIC MAN! WHY! NOT IN THE CAR!! i actually know where its coming from and that it wasn't me!

the higher you rev the engine, the hotter the exhaust gets = http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-9/cats%20smelly%20cat%20by%20phoebe.gif ... lol

:bowrofl: :bowrofl:

Gold star for you.