evo4life94

So, last night I took my car out for a drive. When I started up the car, first time that day, everything smelt normal. After I backed out of my garage and gave it gas it started to smell like rotten eggs!? Since it was a very light smell, from inside the car, I thought it was someone in my car lol! But once I pulled into my garage later on, it smelled extremely bad, like rotten eggs!

My guess was it was the cat going bad or something since I smelt it coming directly from the exhaust. I searched to confirm this and the majority say its the cat going bad and it is a clogged cat, or clogging up? Is this correct?

If it is, how bad would it be to drive like this, with a clogged cat? Would it damage the car due to backpressure?

gsrboi80

iTrader: (38)

Yup rotten egg smell is a cat man

evo4life94

Sweet, thanks for the confirmation! Now can I drive like this or will damage happen?

gsrboi80

iTrader: (38)

Clogged cat will make cars hesitate and bog, generally run like *** as the car can't breath properly. I've seen them glow cherry red also, Pre cat piping and in your case the turbine housing can get very very hot. I would certainly look for a replacement

evo4life94

Man, I thought so
this is my daily driver and the only car I have, which sucks in a situation like this lol

I do have a test pipe that I bought a while back though. But I heard putting a test pipe on will cause the car to overboost and go lean. I am going to get tuned hopefully at the end of the next month or so. Can I just put the test pipe on and be ok driving for a month or 2? I also have a catback and drop in filter

ExViTermini

iTrader: (25)

You will be fine with the test pipe, it will not make the car dangerously overboost, and it shouldn't make the car go detrimentally lean either.

On a side note, a clogged cat can also blow headgaskets sometimes, though I've not heard of it on the 4g.

sujinX

iTrader: (22)

Since it's your daily don't be hitting boost for awhile until u have addressed the problem. What u need to do is figure out what you want to do now and in the long run. I'm talking about if u rather pay a grip for a stock cat or get a high flow cat for half the price. Or stay with test pipe which I don't recommend because it kills environment as well as making the car obnoxiously loud.
You can sell your stock cat to people for like 100-140 depending on condition so there's some money. I would go with a high flow if I were you. Berk tech sells bolt on units, milspec I think only has cores that u weld in your self. Remember tho there's different high flows. 300 cells are more restrictive than 200 than 100 cell.

PsychDr. HN$

iTrader: (44)

I think a bad heater core will give off that same smell too.

xRoguex

iTrader: (15)

wont a clogged cat eventually cause engine damage?

MechTech

If it's your DD get that cat off of there before it really goes bad and causes damage. Put the test pipe on untill you figure out what you want to do, it will not hurt the car in any way to do this. You DO NOT want to be driving with a bad cat any longer then you have to especially for 2 months.

mmmmbst

iTrader: (6)

Boom! I had this happen to my old Audi. With the weather getting colder it is a very good possibility. Make sure its not excessivly hot. If it is, take it out before it explodes.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_does_y...ke_rotten_eggs

mmmmbst

iTrader: (6)

oh and the cause...... bad alternator overcharging the battery.

evo4life94

I removed the cat and replaced it with my test pipe and the smell went away, so im thinking it was the cat. But if it were a bad alternator overcharging the battery would the smell be coming directly from the exhaust?

evo4life94

And thanks for the help everyone

CRogAS8

Yeah I had the same problem with my car when I first bought it. I put a (catless) tbe on and solved the stank. Smart not running a clogged cat, as said above the cat WILL overheat and technically can explode.