Rich smell when cold

[DHelm72]

Hello all,I have had a rich (almost sweet) smell from the exhaust at cold start up for a long time. It goes away shortly after the high idle is finished. If I have a window open I can really smell it in the car. It is very strong at the rear of the vehicle as well. It isn't that rotten egg/sulphur smell that some here are talking about. It smells like a rich burning vehicle but it is just slightly sweeter smelling than the smell of raw gasoline.Is this normal unitl warm up or could there be a problem?Thanks,David

[VforVIBE]

Quote, originally posted by DHelm72 »Is this normal unitl warm up or could there be a problem?It is normal, because the catalytic converters haven't heated up yet, and so they can't burn off the carbon emissions.http://www.howstuffworks.com/c...r.htm

[Digger]

My 05 runs very rich until it gets up to temp. Cold weather has a big impact on the MPG also ( excluding long highway trips.) I average 29-30mpg in the sumer no AC and 26 in the winter no AC on my 13 mile ( one way) trip into work. I would say some of the drop is winter additives which could also change the smell you are smelling.

[northvibe]

yeah mine runs real rich on a cold day start with my bored TB. my mileage dropped too :/ they put crap in the gas in the winters here too, to make the fumes rise

[DHelm72]

Thanks for the replies. I figured it was normal. I am at 32,000 miles so I want to take care of any warranty issues now and I figured I better ask. I thought it might be programmed to run rich at start up to help the engine warm up, kind of like an automatic choke on a carbuereted vehicle. I just haven't really smelled the rich smell in too many fuel injected vehicles since the air fuel ratio is normally so well balanced. I'm glad to hear that this is what the Vibe/Matrix does.