Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting strong sulfur smell

The check engine led is on, and the car smoke smells like sulfur, the stalls (engine power losses) came back again. any suggestions?

Hola tocayo!

Did you pulled the codes?

Bad or clogged catalytic converter would cause all of those symptoms.

Lo lleve a la Ford y el problema fue el ducto EGR, pero eso fue hace 9 meses y el carro continua con el problema, los mecanicos siempre resetean los codigos, y parece haberse solucionado el problema pero despues de un tiempo regresa, ya se le cambio el catalizador, los sensores de oxigeno estan bien, hasta ahora nadie ha solucionado el problema. El problema mas grave es en aceleraciones con el pedal a fondo el carro comienza a acelerar bien pero subitamente pierde potencia y el carro se sienta, desde que me acuerdo le ocurre esto, ya cheque las secundarias y si abren no se que pueda ser

i changed the catalytic converter, last year (It was very expensive)

The sulphur smell from the exhaust, is actually caused by running the engine/cat convertor slightly lean for long periods and then running under a rich condition (ie going up a hill under heavy load) This is when the sulphur smell (rotten egg) is produced.

Under relatively lean conditions, the sulphur found in gasoline is converted to sulphur trioxide, then during the rich running condition the sulfur trioxide is converted into hydrogen sulphide (rotten egg smell) within the catalytic converter.


The root cause could be an O2, vacuum leak, secondaries, fuel pressure, MAF, EGR...

Try to get that code pulled.

Also, some gas will have more sulfur than others. This will not affect power but it will affect the smell and the longevity of the catalytic converters.

classic clogged cat(s). either that or your car needs gas-x

then why does my car do that with a clogged cat?

ok, i´ll check the catalytic converter, but the problem with the engine stalls continue, and im really gotten upset.

I checked the IMRC and works fine, secondaries are opening well, and the failure is more common when car is hot. don´t know, but i think that the problem is on the gas filters. I don´t wanna spend more money in the same problem. so that it is not solved.