Bad smell in car

squirrel6767

Hi

Have a 01 Ford Focus, 1.4, 100k miles

Recently there has been a bad smell in the car that comes and goes. Was blaming the girlfriend with a bad dose of flatulence at the start but alas the smell remained with just myself in the car.
It is typically apparant when starting the car or on the first few miles and either it goes away or I become aclimatised to it.

I have heard from a few friends that it could be the catalitic convertor - any ideas on how to diagnose if it is - there is no bad smell from the exhaust (same as normal) and the car sounds as though it is ticking over as normal. No unusual clanaging or anything.

Are there other possible root causes? Have not changed air/fuel/pollen filters in a good while but I would not have thought they would be the source of a pungent smell.

Thanks in advance.

MercMad

If its smeels like rotten eggs or sulphur then its the cat. Normal ways to reduce smell are change fuel brands if you only use one type but also and more effective bring the car for a longer/harder drive on a more regular basis !

squirrel6767

Thanks for reply.

Yes, suppose you could equate the smell to rotten eggs. Normally get my unleaded in Tesco - last 3 fills anyway. Has there been any reports of it being of inferior quality as it is the few cent cheaper per litre?

I do a 25mile round trip to work every day - would that be considered a long drive. Granted I have not done a longer drive than that for a good while. Will be doing a trip from Dublin to Kerry next week so maybe that will do the job.

Given the car is ay 100k miles is it a sign that the cat needs replacing or is it normally down to the petrol not getting a long/hard enough drive?

Have an NCT next week (after the long trip) and was concerned that it would contribute to an emmisions fail - not going to have it replaced in time now - will do the wait and see approach - they can diagnose problems for me and I will go off and fix. However if there was something simple I could do in advance I would obviously be more than willing.

MercMad

Well I would give it a long hard run on a motorway before the NCT, as near to the test time as possible. Get it nice and hot say a 15 minute drive @ 120km/h.

halkar

Saw on Itv motor program (can't remember the name). One of the tips was to put some charcoal in the car to get rid of smell, worth a try

DMX88

I had a bad smell in Car once. When the heating was on it was worse. Decided to inspect. Poked around and felt something soft and slimy. Found it was a Kitten. Maggots had a field day on her.

Duiske

Could very possibly be your clutch overheating. Not sure why, but when it overheats it smells foul.

tuxy

DMX88 wrote: »

I had a bad smell in Car once. When the heating was on it was worse. Decided to inspect. Poked around and felt something soft and slimy. Found it was a Kitten. Maggots had a field day on her.

So it was the cat just like MercMad suspected!

Wishbone Ash

MercMad wrote: »

then its the cat

DMX88 wrote: »

Found it was a Kitten

I've heard of cars being 'pussy magnets' but this is ridiculous!

colm_mcm

please, make the puns stop!