Rotten Egg Smell
 

i have a 04 acura tl automatic....and sometimes when i push the car past 4000 rpm or have a full car, i notice the car begins to smell like eggs. I took this to the dealer during the first incident and they said it was my cat..and they ended up replacing it and it still occured after that. Recently i just changed my whole exhaust system and put in a high flow cat, and it's still doing the same thing... I'm not sure whats going on but it's kind of embarassing pulling up somewhere and your car starts to smell like that. Was wondering if anoyne else has had that issue? Any explanations?

Thier is no problem at all. If u go WOT, or high rpm most times it will start smelling like rotten eggs. And the highflow cat will make it smell like rotten eggs even more.

i do understand the reasoning behind that...but it seems like its a lot worse than other TLs. A buddy of mine let me drive his car and it did not produce the smell at all. So is there something i should be worried about? Is this also a reason why im only getting about 300-340km per tank?

yes :wink:

Well maybe b/c u have a test pipe, or using diff gas or ur car is older?

It might be one of the other 2 cat. converters on the car, since there are 3 total. Maybe you should check all of them?

I had a similar smell b4 all of my modding, only during wot.... It's nothing, just take it in anyway and they might replace you other primaries.

my car started to smell after i put my test pipe and j-pipe in. then it went away after a day or two. I heard that it has to be broken in or burned off that's why because of the smell.

the smell is nothing....

The smell is a chemical reaction between raw fuel and the catalysts(platinum,palladium,rhodium). I had that smell too whenever i went WOT for long periods of time, i put the test pipe in i havent had the smell since.Like other have said it might be your pre-cats that are failing, bring it back to the dealer and get them to replace those too since emissions components should have a longer warranty.

I average(winter blend fuel) about 320-360km per tank depending on how much i remote start and how i drive.

I'm going to be taking it into the dealer in a few days...any advice in what i should be telling the dealers to make them look into the situation more?

Also...out of curiosity....how much km are you guys getting per tank
hata_61 seems to be getting the same as me...any variances...i've spoken to ladiesman217 he says hes running about 500 on a tank.

Also..just to add more information, i've had my exhaust and hi flow cat in for about 2 months...this is a long enough break in period i assume for the smell not to be there?

I do not have that shit at all... and people can attest to that I do drive my car fast too at times. The only smell I'll get is the smell of burnt rubber.

as stated above, the rotten egg smell is when a ton of fuel is dumped onto the cats and a reaction happens. If I do a WOT run from 0-80, by the time I get to 75, the smell starts coming. Do you have any other mods?

the only mod i have is just the cat back and the high flow cat

lol.. if you smell it at night open up the hood and get under the car.. Are any of your CAT's glowing?? I'm sure if this didn't occur before then one of your CAT's is getting effin hot (no es bueno).

That happened to me as well and at first I thought it was the air outside. I think that it might be the transmission fluid if it has not been changed for a while but i'm going to change it a see if it still happens

No way it has nothing to do with the tranny fluid, when i got WOT with my 08 Tl with almost 9k miles, and it smells like this and almost every other car, ive gone WOT smells like this.

just a thought... Have you checked your batteries? could be an acid buildup on the terminal caps. they smell like rotten eggs too.

I have yet to smell any rotten eggs when doing WOT. I originally smelled a burnt metal smell after new exhaust install. That went way after 100 miles. Maybe that burnt metal smell is what you guys say are rotten eggs?

Did you ever consider that the rotten eggs smell is what you say is burnt metal?? lol.. The sulfur smell is very strong and unique and emanates from the cats.

No. I equate rotten eggs to sulfur which is STINKY. Have you never had kids in school break one of those stink bombs in class? That is not the smell from my exhaust.

Maybe everyone who smells this is because their cats are being destroyed?

The cats are getting very hot.. high heat exposure will eventually melt the combs in the cat which will cause blockage and eventual failure.. but at that point a CEL will indicate trouble / failure.

and btw.. read my post again.. if you didn't sense my sarcasm.. keep looking.. it's there.

Ok..if you say so. LOL.

okay.. fixed.. lol..

How did you fix it I have replaced both pre cats and still have that smell what's the problem it's only whe. I go fast I replaced the map sensor so what else could it be

3rd cat?

I was getting a rotten egg smell in my cabin.. how it gets in is still unknown when you are driving 70, but pretty confident the outside vent is not sealing from the outside. The blower, where the filter is, has a door..
but that is not the purpose of this post.
I read that valves out of adjustment can allow unburned fuel to run into the exhaust and cause performance degrade and separately I think it can cause a rotten egg smell..
But that is not the only thing that can allow raw fuel to pass from the intake into the exhaust. I think carbon build up on valves can keep them from closing completely and allow fuel to pass through. And still cause a performance downgrade and raw fuel to be dumped into the exhaust. And again, smelly exhaust.
I still don't know how it really gets inside the cabin, moreover from inside the exhaust into the air and then seeping into the cabin. Maybe there is more turbulence around the car than what it seems, and the air gets inside the car...
So just for trial and error about 2 weeks ago I bought some BG fuel cleaner that goes in your gas tank. And I just ran the thing out completely which was one full tank. And I filled up with 93 octane gas and to my surprise at one point when I was driving home today the car took off like I was really getting on it but I wasn't. So in other words it was running really good. And not only that I didn't smell any odor and I was letting it rev up pretty good. I don't know if it's completely fixed yet or not because I need to do more testing I only drove it once so far, but I thought it was interesting what I've experienced so far and thought I would mention it.
so assuming you're catalytic converters are still good, a possibility why It would be getting too much fuel because either you have carbon buildup or it needs a valve adjustment. But unless your car is making a lot of tapping noises on the valves then I'm not certain if it really needs a valve adjustment. Although however, the faster your engine turns then it may be more critical that all these points are finally tuned otherwise it starts dumping fuel into the exhaust. So maybe they lifters are not tapping at a low RPM but showing signs of out of adjustment when there is high RPM like maybe a floating valve? I don't know but you could say the same thing with carbon buildup so who knows exactly for sure one of the other. Either way if I find out something different I will post. Meaning I don't know if it's really fixed yet or not but I was consistently getting a rotten egg smell under heavy throttle. And for once today it didn't do it and it was immediately after I ran BG fuel cleaner through the system and filled up with fresh 93 octane