Acceleration Odor

[Derek Pulvino]

Coonhound,

The sulfur smell may also be your car running rich and as you guessed 
causing a case of inflamed catalytic converteritis.  I know this is the case 
in my car.  No matter what people say, it's really something you can never 
get used to.

And if you are leaking oil, it can come from many places onto the cat.  Case 
in point; I had valve cover gasket leak that would come off the back of the 
head, sneak across the tranny, and then let loose on the passenger side cat. 
  Now that stunk, and was embarasing in traffic...one time even saw smoke 
coming out from under my car.

Derek P

Message: 6
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 18:34:25 -0500
From: Phil Rose <>
Subject: Re: Acceleration Odor
To: coonhound at myway.com
Cc: 200q20v at audifans.com
Message-ID: <a06100507bdebbeeca2cf@[192.168.0.100]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

At 3:58 PM -0500 12/19/04, Sean wrote:
>Many thanks for the seat info.
>Next question: Under heavy acceleration (e.g., racing an M3 from a toll 
>booth), a strong unpleasant odor briefly fills the passenger cabin.  It 
>smells a bit like something burning, with a vague sulfur smell.  Assuming 
>it relates to exhaust/ catalytic converter.  Is this normal?  Anyone else 
>experience this?


>From burning tranny oil? Check to see if there is tranny oil leaking
from the seals on either side of the front differential output. It's
a common occurrence with these cars as they approach or exceed 100K
miles. Don't ask how I know that the (passenger side) seal leakage
will drip down onto the catalytic converter and create the smell you
describe.

Phil