Rotten Egg smell whilst engine is under load.

[raydhillon Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close raydhillon]

Hi guys,

as the subject says;

im experiencing a 'egg' or 'foul' type smell that enters the cabin when the car is revved over 2000rpm and under heavy load per say up a hill.....

Has anyone else experienced this, i have had the climate control on the "recirculated air" setting and not the fresh air setting..

im suspecting there must be some leak somewhere but not sure...

any ideas guys?

cheers.

car is a 2007 grande 4lt v6 petrol if thats relevant.

[NZKIWIS Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close NZKIWIS]

Re: Rotten Egg smell whilst engine is under load.

Hi
Just a stab in the dark I'd check your catalytic converter.... if your getting sympton number 4 listed below... just a thought something you can knock off your list of possible causes..


Symptoms of Broken Catalytic Converters
•1
Step on the throttle. If it does not cause the car to go faster, then this may be a symptom of a broken catalytic converter. You may also hear a whistling or choking sound when stepping on the throttle, or notice a significant decrease in gas mileage.

•2
Drive the car and monitor its performance. A car with a faulty catalytic converter may stop moving after a few minutes. A clogged or broken catalytic converter causes problems with the exhaust, which causes back pressure in the engine and interferes with proper functioning.

•3
Listen for a rattling sound that may only be audible when the car is idling. The core of a catalytic converter can break apart, causing this rattling.

•4
Look for blue-gray smoke. The gases that a converter breaks down are normally this color and contain sulfur, which smells like rotten eggs. A smell like rotten eggs coming from the exhaust is another symptom


NZKIWIS

Hi guys,

as the subject says;

im experiencing a 'egg' or 'foul' type smell that enters the cabin when the car is revved over 2000rpm and under heavy load per say up a hill.....

Has anyone else experienced this, i have had the climate control on the "recirculated air" setting and not the fresh air setting..

im suspecting there must be some leak somewhere but not sure...

any ideas guys?

cheers.

car is a 2007 grande 4lt v6 petrol if thats relevant.

[raydhillon Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close raydhillon]

Re: Rotten Egg smell whilst engine is under load.

hi NZKIWIS,

thanks for the reply,

I got the car checked through by RACQ prior to purchasing it so i would imagine they would have picked this up but im not too entirely sure.

Im suspecting maybe a hole somewhere in the firewall in the front somewhere at this stage, might have to pay a visit to the dealer where i bought this from as my previous gxl didnt have anything like this.

Theres so many factors involved :S . I will get the cat-converter checked out by mac mufflers or something and see how we go.

I thought it could possibly be the air conditioning filter not doing its job and this particular problem doesnt always happen.

Car drives fine, plenty of up and go.

Needs spark plugs i think though as sometimes the engine is idling funny. which is due at 120 000kms, car has done 115 000kms.

Ill keep you pradopointers updated!

Cheers

Ray

[Bondi Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Bondi]

What did you find was the problem as it sounds similar to the smell I get when under load.

[slackdog Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close slackdog]

What octane fuel are you running ???? 91,95,98 octane fuels do not make considerable differences in performance but it is the emmissions that are cleaner on 98. Under heavy loads and heavy foot the ecu is not in closed loop so it is fairly normal when you flogg it a bit to get some sulphur smell.
The smell comes out the exhaust so check grommets in the back of the vehicle as well as seals ect.

Rob

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

to confuse you even more i find when i follow most falcons they smell like bad eggs, especially au and ba, and i own a ford as well. cheers samo

[SWR Banned Find all posts View Profile Close SWR]

Hi guys

A common problem with petrol engines if not taken for a good run (Short trips only) is that the lambda probe (Oxygen sensor) soot's up and gives a false readings to the ECU that conflicts with the MAF (Mass Air Flow) readings that are also read by the ECU (Electronic Control Unit).

If the probe soots (Oxygen sensor) then it tends to make the fuel injectors over-fuel and give the "Bad-egg" smell (Sulfa)..... (Access fuel dumped into the catalytic converter causes a chemical reaction). This smell is common for a car that isn't allowed to heat up (Left to idle for long periods from cold and driven short journeys.

Very high levels of fuel being dumped into the catalytic converter can cause whats called the "Chernobyl effect" where the catalytic converter over heats due to over-fueling (Glows red if really bad over-fueling) then burns its self out and collapses..... This is obviously a very worse case scenario that is exposed continually over long periods so don't stress! (Bad eggs on cold start is common).

Don't know the error code off hand for exhaust probe sensor when it fails.

Very basic blurb on the principle! (Less the throttle position/crank sensor/ rpm blah blah blah.

Mass Air Flow (MAF) meter works out exact ambient air temp/ density and flow rate, The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) equates exact fuel ratio needed, the ECU then sends a pulse signal to the fuel injectors to achieve the perfect fuel/air ratio..... the lambda probe (Oxygen sensor) checks oxygen levels in the burnt exhaust gases and corrects the fuel ratio via the ECU accordingly to keep perfect fuel/air ratio.

If the probe gets sooted it can no-longer measure oxygen levels accurately... the ECU then gets wrong signals from probe and over fuels.... Hence bad eggs!

A casual drive allowing the engine to reach its full engine temp fixes this. hence no bad eggs smell after a drive.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[Natlie Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Natlie]

We have the same problem with our 04...thought it was the bk door seal but after replacing it $400 later its still smelly under load. The knock sensor light is on in the dash also. It's off to the mechanic next week he also said about some airflow metre ? Fuelveccon is bad also atm

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

We've had a few Toyotas in the company that did this from day one. Don't know if it is worse when cold etc, but they did it from the moment we bought them (new) until the day we traded them.

Other than that, they were your usual reliable, economical Toyotas. Don't think there was anything wrong with them. All imports from Japan if I remember rightly.

Google search for 'Toyota rotten egg smell': http://bit.ly/M3i5JL

Very common.

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

i get the same problem , just stop eating pickled onions after drinking a crap load of bourbon and the smell will go away . these two together are a recipe for rotten egg gas .

[Matty80 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Matty80]

Trade it in... Buy a Diesel...

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

to confuse you even more i find when i follow most falcons they smell like bad eggs, especially au and ba, and i own a ford as well. cheers samo

I completely agree. Falcons have a different exhaust smell to every other car on the road. Especially when the drivers of them put their foot down hard. You can smell them a mile away and it's so distinct. I always wondered why.

[diydave Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close diydave]

I have had the same problem with this since we bought the 06 grande with only 77k on the clock. It was obvious it had been used as a shopping trolley. We bought it thru a dealer with extended warranty.

Under load, you got the rotten egg smell.

It has been back to the dealer we bought it from 5 times with various issues over the past 4 months, up until it went back last week, no one could make it make the smell.

Finally last week took it back, said to them, dont return it till you have fixed it. got a call on Friday morning from the new service manager (30+ years on the tools, seemed like a pretty straight shooter). He said to me "god this car stinks, how come no one else picked up the smell, its foul. He checked it out and said that they were sending it to the muffler shop as he suspected the cat converter. He called back later and said it was fine but they were looking further.

Got it back yesterday, the service manager reckons they have fixed it. The mufflers were full of water, (at least 1/2 a ltr) which absorbed all the Sulphur and smell. Hi theory was that when it heated up it gave off the foul smell. They emptied it out and ran it for most of the afternoon and couldn't get a smell out of it.

Fingers crossed that they have fixed it. Will report back once we have tried it out.

[Anth120playdo Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Anth120playdo]

From my experience, when there is a bad rotton egg smell, you need a new cat to fix it.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

It's normal, but if you replace the cat with an aftermarket brand you might get lucky and lose the stink.