Rotten egg smell in the car

[Mitch]

Just recently when I started to use high octane gas (94) I started to feel the smell coming out of the vents especially after the a/c was used.Is it normal for a 2006 Pontiac Vibe? What's the remedy?Thank you,Andrew

[engineertwin2]

shouldn't be normal...what's the mileage? Also, is it a GT? Why 94 octane? Just spending money to spend it at this point unless you went turbo...

[Mitch]

The mileage is 46000 km. I switched temporarily to 94 to clean the engine (some mechanic told me so, because I have very poor mileage). Could the 94 octane be the problem?

[kevera]

I run Sunoco super in my 1zz,but I have a uni-chip.I find the gas here in Canada to have a higher level of sulphur content to it.There is a cat fix from Pontiac for that.You should still be covered by warranty.Just tell them about the "rotten egg smell".

[northvibe]

the rotten egg smell is usually when the Cat. Converter goes bad. Your vibe should be under warranty so bring it in to get that looked at. Also a bad Cat. converter will also lead to horrible gas mileage.

[Kari]

With the TSB, it's not necessarily that the converter is "bad," per se, but that the material it is made of reacts with the sulfur in the fuel and produces the smell. They replace it with a new one made of a different material. I had this done a few years ago and have not experienced the smell ever since! It should be covered by the emissions warranty if your bumper to bumper is out.

[northvibe]

ahhh thanks kari, good to know. You think they would of done more testing on that cat before releasing it into the wild

[kevera]

Hey,I said that first,lolHere is the tsb the dealer gave me when I had my cat changed.

Attached files img005.pdf (385.2 KB) 

[Mitch]

Kari, what TSB you are refferring to?I went to the dealership and the service guy told me that to find the problem they would have to do some work and charge me their hourly rate for this if finally they can't find the problem. He mentioned that if I really had the cat broken I'd have the orange indicator on on the dashboard.As I mostly experience the bad smell after I use the A/C (which is terribly weak compared to my previous one in Ford Taurus) he pointed out that I might want to service the A/C which is not covered by the warranty as well.Because I have the smell problem only occasionally I desided not to go with their service but watch it for some time.As for bad mileage (about 400 km per tank) I heard that here in Canada the gas is quite different than that from the US. I heard some people complain about their cars that they feel underpowered when going back to Canada from the US and switching back to Canadian gas. I wonder if all gas providers are the same and if there is a sense in what these people say.

[Kari]

The TSB is a service bulletin telling them what to do if there is a rotten egg smell present when the car is being driven...I don't think they did any diagnostic tests on mine except to drive it around, and I had no lights on on the dash...the converter is not "broken," it's just made of a material that reacts with the gas and produces that smell. So really, there isn't a problem aside from the smell...it is operating fine and will likely continue to do so if left alone. If you can get them to listen to you and look up the TSB, they will see that what they need to do is replace the converter, whether it's "broken" or not.

[joatmon]

The TSB that kevera posted above says it is for 2003-2005 Vibes. Mitch has an 06, so the assumption would be that the new version of the catalytic converter (the one less prone to sulfur smell) is already installed, replacing it with the same new version likely wouldn't help. However, I wouldn't necessarily assume that it does in fact have the new version. Might depend on when in the model year Mitch's Vibe was built. The TSB is dated 11/17/05, that should have been a few months into the 06 production run.Unless Mitch drives a lot, his Vibe should still be under warranty. That would include the converter, and would also include the AC system. The dealer is being evasive saying the AC system is not covered under warranty, unless the whole car is out of warranty for some reason.There have been three types of catalytic converter failures reported here on genvibe. -First, like mine , was the converter not working correctly, not converting. This one will cause a check engine light, set a code for P0420. (supposedly other things can also cause a P0420) Doesn't cause sulffur smell though. -The second is the sulfur smell problem, covered by the TSB, and does not cause a check engine light. -The third is the clog problem like pmh013 had, gunked up, restrivcted air flow, terrible gas mileage, no power, and again, no check engine light. Don't think this one will cause excessive sulfur smell, might though.So no check engine light is no guarantee that the converter is fine. I'd suggest trying a different dealership, perhaps one that wants customers to come back satisfied, not go away frustrated.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=8344 is the long thread about the sulfur smelllast fall, in http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=26039 tnpartsguy posted about having the sulfur smell in an 06. tnpartsguy, what was the resolution to that problem in yours?

[Kari]

We strongly suspected CP's Vibe had the same problem as pmh013...and I don't think a sulfur smell was present with it either.

[joatmon]

I wouldn't be surprised, I think there was some sort of evil psychic manifestation going on there, read about someone's problem, it would develop in that car. Just imagining the possibilities of problems, then they developed in that car. Glad that bad mojo didn't transfer to your vibe.Mitch mentions two things, switch to 94 octane, and also starting to run the AC. hard to mis-smell sulfur though, and wouldn't expect sulfur smell to be generated by the AC system, but it is a good easy thing to do, check the cabin air filter, make sure it isn't filthy, mildewed, or otherwise nasty. http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id ... d?id=25512