sulphur smell??

[solaracazzo]

I am the proud owner of a '99 V6 Se 5sp.
I have 86,000km and have followed dealer maintenance. The car has been a dream ,and I absolutely LOVE IT!, BUT!!! I've been plagued with a hideous sulphur like stench that rears it's ugly head on any moderate-heavy acceleration. 2 Different dealers have been of no use to me, basically indicating it is a design flaw. I have no mechanical mods, and run regular octane gas...any suggestions before I try writing Toyota Canada for help??

[Blaze]

ive got the same problem, i think it might be the cat

[ICUFG]

yeah Toyotas around here usually smell like that when new, some cats clog and smell like that. If you have emission laws the sniffer will tell you i think

[Flipside909]

I am the proud owner of a '99 V6 Se 5sp.
I have 86,000km and have followed dealer maintenance. The car has been a dream ,and I absolutely LOVE IT!, BUT!!! I've been plagued with a hideous sulphur like stench that rears it's ugly head on any moderate-heavy acceleration. 2 Different dealers have been of no use to me, basically indicating it is a design flaw. I have no mechanical mods, and run regular octane gas...any suggestions before I try writing Toyota Canada for help??

O2 sensor might be going bad. Also, what brand gas are you using? Shell is notorious for using alot of sulphur in their fuels.

[Kenn157]

I've got the same problem. I use Mobile unleaded super. I thought it might have been a possible sludge problem from the previous owners oil change maintenence. The smell to me seemed oil rather then gas. A heavier smell. But now that you guys mentioned "sulfur". Yeah thats what it is. Its a relief to know that its not a sludge problem.

Now, lets figure out a way to rid our beauties of this "bad breath"
Tic-tac-tic-tac-tic-tac.

[solaracazzo]

Although I only run regular grade, I've been running Sunoco almost exclusively, as they are thought to have the cleanest gas. I can honestly say I notice no difference the odd time i sneak in a tank of PetroCan or Esso. As far as the O2 sensor, oddly enough I had my service engine light come on this summer, and the car stalled at idle a couple of times. It was traced to the O2 sensor, which I had changed. Great! I though, this will get rid of that annoying smell....WRONG!....no change after O2 sensor was changed.
As far as the cat goes, Toyota Dealer has told me that the problem is due to an overly efficient cat!!!...personally I find it all hard to believe, but it is really starting to annoy me. I'm afraid if I change the factory cat I may run into problems when I do my emmisions test.

[krazeee1707]

I use to have that sulfur smell when I first bought my car. It already had 47000 miles. I raced an old school RX-7 and after the race I had that horrible smell. I have almost 60,000 miles and a few races later, I don't notice that smell anymore. I changed my oil to synthetic and am using either mobil or shell premium gas. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I'm just glad I got rid of that smell.

[Flipside909]

Although I only run regular grade, I've been running Sunoco almost exclusively

Are you getting this smell after using higher octanes as well? I dunno about there in Canada, but there are different regions in the US add different mixtures of chemicals into the fuels, i.e. ethanol, MTBE and etc. Perhaps Canadian gas just sucks all together.

When was the last time you tuned your engine and changed the plugs? And when was the last time your pcv valve was replaced? I really doubt it's a Toyota flaw. Toyota makes reliable engines...and some symptoms of problems are usually caused by owner error i.e. improper regular maintenance.

I personally use Chevron and Mobil only and my 99 SE V6 5-spd is running great at 74,300 miles.

[Guest]

I personally use Chevron and Mobil only and my 99 SE V6 5-spd is running great at 74,300 miles.

Sweet. That's exactly what gas I use, so hopefully my car will be as reliable as yours at 74k (I have 30k now). I use 91 octane too. Also, I've noticed that Mobil seems to make my car run a little smoother than Chevron, especially at idle. Anyone else notice this? Same thing occured with my old Integra too.

[nkx1]

Oops. The above post was me. I'm on a different computer at work, so I wasn't automatically logged in.

[Flipside909]

Sweet. That's exactly what gas I use, so hopefully my car will be as reliable as yours at 74k (I have 30k now). I use 91 octane too. Also, I've noticed that Mobil seems to make my car run a little smoother than Chevron, especially at idle. Anyone else notice this? Same thing occured with my old Integra too.

I've experienced the opposite. Chevron runs smoother on my car...and that's with every octane between Mobil and Chevron. I use 89 octane most of the time.

[nkx1]

I've experienced the opposite. Chevron runs smoother on my car...and that's with every octane between Mobil and Chevron. I use 89 octane most of the time.

Hmmm. That's weird that we would have opposite experiences. Oh well, who knows why. I guess we can just do whatever works best for our respective cars.

[Flipside909]

Yeah exactly. That's why I stay with only 2 gasoline brands.

[Kenn157]

Idont know what the previous owner used, but I always use Mobile.. got the Speed Pass! For 14+ years it was all I ever used in my 88 Camry.

[Missay]

u know...i've never noticed any persistant smell in my car (except for the new car scent airfreshner that i have to have!)

although, every now and then (i noticed it most after an oil change) i did get a strange oil like smell when i had the heat/ac on...i think it had to do w/ the oil, but when you guys mention the sulfur, that is probably closer to what it smelled like.