sulphur smell in car

spadder

Got the car NCT’d last week, It’s a Ford focus 1.4, since then there has been a sulphur / eggy smell in the car.
(The Mrs was blaming me for it, this time it’s definitely not me)

Would the revving the sh1t out of it during the NCT have damaged the catalytic converter? or could they have broke something poking around.

ronnie3585

Yea, you usually get that horrible eggy smell from the cat. I'm sure the mechanics here can cast a better light on it.

WHITE_P

As it will have had the nads revved off it during the NCT, what you are smelling is the CAT.

spadder

will it settle down again or is it knackered?

WHITE_P

Should settle down, its just all the contaminents burning off.

The rotten egg smell comes when sulphur dioxide accumulated in the cat that gets released on rich fueling condition (i.e. on hard acceleration). The accumulation always occurs when the car idles or is driven slowly.

The NCT should not "rev the sh1t out of" petrol engines but it could be that they had to heat up the cat a bit to get the emissions right (the stored SO2 reduces cat efficiency).

Reasons for sudden increase of smell could be that the last fuel you got had more sulphur than the fuel you normally get and then when the car was stationary at NCT the smell from released SO2 got sucked in the car. Maybe the car idled a long time and/or was driven very sedately just before the test creating ideal conditions for the mentioned trapment.

Maybe try a different filling station next time as high levels of sulphur is not good for your cylinder bores anyway.

spadder

thanks guys, herself was blaming my "sulpur emissions":P

komodosp

Hey folks

recently got a similar smell from my car and I was wondering was it anything to do with the battery... Was told by a friend it could be the alternator overcharging the battery.

Yesterday morning I opened the bonnet and saw that there was a bit of corrosion on the paintwork under the battery, also there was some whitey-blue powder on the positive terminal of the battery. I cleaned it off and the smell temporarily went away.

Then driving to England last night, there seemed to be no smell at high speeds (motorway) but it came back very strong at low speeds (around town).

Then this morning, battery was nearly dead.... car wouldn't start. Checked under bonnet again, there wasn't more powder on the battery though.

Mr Benevolent

Your battery seems to be leaking, best to replace it. If you have a multimeter you can check if the battery is overcharging (the voltage readout should be between 12.8-14.7V).

komodosp

Hmm... was reading about it and it looks likely it's the alternator... Might be able to get my hands on a multimeter but not really sure how to check... Presumably the engine has to be running, right? Is it the cables connected to the battery I'm checking (coming from the alternator) or the output of the battery itself?

Thanks a million for the info.

Run_to_da_hills

Confab wrote: »

Your battery seems to be leaking, best to replace it. If you have a multimeter you can check if the battery is overcharging (the voltage readout should be between 12.8-14.7V).

Sounds like a leaking battery on to an aluminium surface. H2_SO4 :eek:

Wear old clothes when removing / replacing the battery other wise you will also find them full of holes.