I have a Protege 5 with just over 19000 kms and it has been emitting a horriible bad-egg fart like smell since we got it. Ive heard a few comments regarding this...as follows

1) It may have to do with the type of gas - cheap gas runs less effienciently and the excess carbon is the bad smell

However, i have tried using a higher octane gas a few times and seems to help, but only a little. The dealer in the beginning said this was common during the "break in" period, but this has been goin on for almost a year, far past the break in stage.

Does anyone else have or had this problem? or is this car a lemmon

thanks

 

usually a rotten egg smell is the result of a bad/damaged catalytic converter. new cars may have the smell for a while, but it should go away after a month or less. i'd take it to a dealer and have them check the catalytic converter.

 

mine is still there. almost 2yrs now.
but not as bad as b4. and only if i circulate the air instead of outside air...

 

Isn't that smell also associated with running too rich? Might want to check into fuel supply problems...

Just remembered...I had this same problem on my 240sx (running 87 octane). This morning I filled it up on 93 octane and bought some octane booster (it has a knock sensor, which boosts power with higher octanes). Not only is it a lot faster, I think the smell is gone.

 

hmmm......take the rotten eggs out of the trunk

 

when i did that, the rotten egg smell was gone!

 

I've had my car for almost a year and a half and they said that's normal

 

yea.... ive heard the same comments outside this message board as well.

however, i did try putting higher octane with the fuel boost additive today, and it has seemed to disappear...... for this gas fill up at least.

It's interesting to hear that is a common problem though...

 

I have had that smell off and on, but only when using the heater. It will just appear after a while, last less than a minute and then disappear. When I mentioned it to the dealer, I was told that it was because I should be using the "regular" gas and not a higher or mid-grade. I was/am still skeptical about that. I have since used regular, and it still happens, although less often (I think). I haven't been using the heater lately, and it doesn't happen with the air conditioning.

The funny thing is that I had a 25 year old car that did the exact same thing when the heater was used. I think there might very well be a connection between that smell and the crappy state of the gasoline being sold.

 

maybe you could change the idol speed alittle higher??? My dad had a problem similar to this with his accord.

That dealer just doesnt know what he's talkin about. These cars are designed for 87 octane gas (with the exception of the MSP). The gas you use may be crappy and the cause of the smell though. i just hate how dealers just say "try high octane gas." i did that to try and fix that damn pinging and at 1.95 a gallon at the time i was pissed off when i had to flush 2 full tank of the **** through at 25 bux a tank.

 

Thats strange. I dont htink I could drive a car that smelled like @$$ all day. Ive had my pro5 for about 7 months now and never had anything like that.
________
503

 

The funny thing is that the dealer suggested I go down to a lower octane. I had been using 89 I believe at the time.

 

wow thats the first time i ever heard that.

 

trying different brands of gas also can help. Ones with a lower sulfur content will smell less (obviously).

The really strong smell should go away after a while as the catalytic converter ages a little, but because of the normal chemical reaction to the sulfur in the gas/combustion process there is always going to be a little of it there. Usually it comes after running the car rich for a while (hard driving, WOT) and then real lean (like cruising on the highway).

 

thats EXACTLY what happens... drive it hard for a bit, then back to cruising speed and I get that egg smell. But it only stays for a small period of time. My brother passed me one day in his toyota matrix XRS one day, (BTW blew by me) and said he couldnt stay behind me because the smell was too horrible from behind.

Now, I do drive an automatic protege 5 (not my choice however)... i doubt that might make a difference... what do u guys think?