Hi Folks - I'm new here because I just bought my 2008 Acura TL this past Friday.

So far I love it.

I bought it from a Lexus dealer. I did not purchase a warranty.

Every now and then (it happened last night, and a couple of times on Saturday), I'll smell a rotten egg smell that goes away after a few minutes.

I don't know if my speed or other circumstances had any effect, but I was doing about 70mph when it happened on Saturday, about 45mph last night, and the air conditioner was on each time.

My questions are:

What could it be?
My first thought was catalytic converter.

I looked on line and saw them running from $95 to $500 or so. Any recommendations?

Is installation difficult?

Expensive?

I have an appointment with my mechanic for next Monday.

The car was smogged by the dealer, and I did have my mechanic give it a look, though it was a freeby, not a comprehensive one.

 

yupp! rotten egg or a sulfur smell indicates a bad cat.

I would suggest going to an aftermarket part like pre-cat deletes or even high flow cats....this will be an upgrade for more power.
head to http://rv6-p.com/ to check out the performance upgrades

 

if you dont want the rotten egg smell go with HFPC option from RV6

welcome to AcuraZine.

 

If you need to replace the third cat it would be a good time to upgrade to a XLR8 V2 j-pipe. More power. And the third cat isn't monitored.

 

+1 for a J-pipe

Why spend that much on a cat that doesn't do much?

J-Pipe is a win-win.

 

Look into HFPCs and Jpipe! Moar POWER!!

 

Question is does OP wants to go with performance parts or just stay stock? If performance than go with what the above poster's advice.

 

Hold on, we dont even know which cat is bad.
before suggesting other "pipes" and upgrades, it would be best if he found out which cat went bad.

there are two up front in the engine bay and one underneath the car.

 

Too many cats lol

 

If the primary cats are working, a bad 3rd cat can't cause the sulfur smell. If the primaries are not working you will have a CEL.

The car will still have a sulfur smell under load even with working cats. NOx emissions go up with load. An egr system that's not functioning will increase NOx emissions.

The big question is why were you smelling exhaust fumes while the car is moving. You probably have an exhaust leak or it's not the exhaust at all.

Does it have the smell only when you're on the gas hard or just driving normal? Emission system problems will usually trigger the CEL easier than anything else.

If you have a plugged cat the car will have that smell and it will usually drive fine with easy driving but as the rpms and load go up it runs worse and worse. I've seen cars with cats that were so plugged (melted) that the car wouldn't rev past 3,000rpms in neutral.

 

If he just bought the car..maybe old owner installed PCD?

 

^he wouldnt get the egg smell with PCDs....
egg smell only comes from cat. converter

 

PCDs smell gooooooooooooood.

Rotten eggs smell baddddddddddd.

 

Installing the Pre-Cats is no too difficult, it took me under 2 hours, and that was with me taking quite a few breaks. The third cat/j-pipe (which it more than likely isn't) is even easier, an hour tops.

Also, if you wanted I could scan the removal/install instructions from the Service manual, and email them to you.