Egg/sulphur smell in the car - be worried?

[UTH]

Happened in the last few days, but today it seems to have gone.

Have read it could be one of three things.....the fact that it seems to have gone makes me think it doesn't need looking at? It only just came back from a service.....or is this potentially something very bad news that should be looked at ASAP regardless?

[P675]

It's probably your 12v battery gone bad and getting too hot.

[UTH]

P675 said:

It's probably your 12v battery gone bad and getting too hot.

Interesting.....is that something that would be visible to look at? I've only owned the car a year so I've not got a clue about battery history.....

[Pixel Pusher]

Catalytic converters can smell like rotten eggs if not working properly.

[UTH]

Pixel Pusher said:

Catalytic converters can smell like rotten eggs if not working properly.

Yeah that seems to be what comes up the most when I've been researching it. I'd probably be getting it booked in ASAP if the smell hadn't seemed to have gone today.....hence wondering if I leave it for now and wait to see if it comes back? Or is that foolish?

[TGCOTF-dewey]

So you have heated seats and love a pickled egg with your Guiness?

[P675]

UTH said:

Interesting.....is that something that would be visible to look at? I've only owned the car a year so I've not got a clue about battery history.....

With mine, it would only do it on a long drive, after an hour or so. You could feel the bubbling acid boiling inside if you put your hand on it. The battery was in the boot so the smell was quite bad.

[Pixel Pusher]

I guess if it persists or is intermittent then yes, a check would be wise.

If it clears and the smell doesn't re-occur then I'd leave it personally.

Had a couple of cars that have done this and it's only ever been isolated and cleared itself.

[EmailAddress]

Is everything electrical okay?

No burnt relays etc.

[UTH]

EmailAddress said:

Is everything electrical okay?

No burnt relays etc.

Yeah everything seems ok. The car was absolutely mint when I bought it, and I've probably only done 1k miles since getting it, it probably does 3 miles a day on average!

Sounds like I'm probably not doing mega damage if the smell has gone, will keep a nose out for it coming back haha

[Baldchap]

In my experience it's normally bacteria in the AC system.

You can get stuff to treat it.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

if it's an eggy smell, it's most likely something emissions related. And in time I suspect a warning lamp will illuminate.
Do you have a code reader. Could be useful to see if there are any DTC's.

Also check and see if the cruise control works, sometimes faults occur and the first you know about it is when a feature such as CC does not work any more even though it won't actually be related.

[LuckyThirteen]

Does the car start? Any leccy issues?

If it won't start or has voltage issues it's battery and potentially very dangerous.

[sherman]

Baldchap said:

In my experience it's normally bacteria in the AC system.

You can get stuff to treat it.

AC bomb. You should be able to get onevfrom any motor factors.
Stick it on the centre arm rest and pull the pin and runaway and lock the car.

[UTH]

LuckyThirteen said:

Does the car start? Any leccy issues?

If it won't start or has voltage issues it's battery and potentially very dangerous.

Starts perfectly, not a single electrical issue that I’ve noticed.
And it doesn’t have cruise control.
Mk2 Focus RS if that helps any advice

[awg454]

You haven’t used water from a water butt to fill the washer bottle have you,I did and after a while it really stinks

[Simon_GH]

I had this in an old Focus. It disappeared when I refilled from my normal filling station. Rightly or wrongly I put it down to unusually high sulphur content in the fuel and more importantly it never returned.

[Tony1963]

Cat

3 miles per day isn’t good.

Take it for a nice 20 mile+ drive and enjoy the car how it was meant to be enjoyed. That cat needs to get HOT!

[UTH]

Tony1963 said:

Cat

3 miles per day isn’t good.

Take it for a nice 20 mile+ drive and enjoy the car how it was meant to be enjoyed. That cat needs to get HOT!

"Isn't good" in terms of it's an awesome car which should be driven more? I agree, and now that the Corvette is hibernating, it should get some longer runs.

"Isn't good" good in terms of health of the car? You think I'm doing damage but not driving it enough?

[E-bmw]

UTH said:

Tony1963 said:

Cat

3 miles per day isn’t good.

Take it for a nice 20 mile+ drive and enjoy the car how it was meant to be enjoyed. That cat needs to get HOT!

"Isn't good" in terms of it's an awesome car which should be driven more? I agree, and now that the Corvette is hibernating, it should get some longer runs.

"Isn't good" good in terms of health of the car? You think I'm doing damage but not driving it enough?

Isn't good in the case of a CAT needs to get proper hot to be efficient and the engine starts & runs for the first few mins to get it up to temperature as quickly as possible.

3 miles a day isn't doing much more than warming the cat/engine up so neither will be running efficiently.

Couple that with the fact that an ICE produces lots of water vapour especially at start up & if the exhaust never really gets hot enough to evaporate this off the exhaust will rust from the inside out much quicker.