Smell of rotten eggs

I have a newer 08 tacoma with over 6000 miles on it. I occasionally get the strong odor of rotten eggs or sulfur when I pull into a parking lot or slow down from a higher rate of speed. It's pretty strong once I really slow down or park the truck. Why is this, I only put Chevron or Shell gas in my truck. I thought it may be a catalytic converter problem but the guy from toyota said it takes time for something to burn off in the Catalytic converter and to give it more time. I call BS on that! Anyone know?

In addition, if I back out of the driveway or a parking spot, I put it in drive, it engages I slowly give it gas to take off and no response. It will move forward but it's like it isn't getting gas. Then all the sudden it'll jolt and take off. I thought there might be a fuel problem or exhaust flow issue? Again, anyone got anything on this?

Thanks

 

TAke it back to the dealer for a checkup.

In Volkswagens, its not uncommon to get a sulfer smell from the CAT when using gas with addatives.

OR stop eating all that spicey food and the smell will go away.

 

WHOAAHHHH!!!! GUYS-WADDAYA THINK-MELTED CAT??? GET THAT THING TO THE DEALER NOW-you sound like you have an extremely restricted exhaust system which could kill the engine.

 

Ha ha ha, that was my first thought! I was thinking to myself, "did someone just rip one"? I looked over at my girlfriend and she looked at me, I said it wasn't me! It's the truck! She didn't believe me. Thanks guys I have an appointment with the dealer.

 

I used to get that smell when i first got mine. The smell would only come up right after hard accellerations though. It has since then gone away, it and has never been back.

 

ever seen Grumpy Old Men??

 

Sounds like the catalytic converter.

 

thats my first thought

 

You have bad gas (snicker). But really, if you are getting your gas from the same place every time, then just switch gas stations. It comes from a bad mixture, too much sulfur in the fuel. I was having the same problem, and then on the first tank at a different gas station the smell went away. Try it, it's definitely the cheapest and easiest solution. Then if it doesn't go away, take it to the dealer.

 

More than likely your cats are working fine. In fact, your cats are probably optimal. The smell of Hydrogen Sulfide is a good sign your cats are working properly. The gas you use, AFR, and cats are responsible for the odor. Eliminating the cats, that leaves you with gas and AFR. AFR is easy enough to check.............and if that looks good............you know it's the gas, but even so, as your cats get older, they will lose efficiency and the smell diminishes anyway.

 

I use either shell or chevron gas. How do you go about checking the AFR? I'm guessing this is a computer issue that the dealer or shop has to check.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

Don't worry yourself unless you have other related problems such as stalling or hesitation. Your driving habits can also contribute to the amount of Hydrogen Sulfide produced. Running hard or uphill and then a stop and slow speed will contribute to the odor. If you live in a mountainous area also contributes.

You can install a gauge or have dealer check AFR, but I really think it is not needed. Do you punch it hard when taking off? Are you pulling anything?

Just change your gas for now. Let us know if anything changes or not. Running at perfect Stoich is very difficult.

 

If you read DC's origional post, second paragraph, doesn't it sound like a restricted flow of some sort? Anyway DC I'm glad you're taking it in. Hey it's under warranty so make them accountable-it's your money here>

 

I don't live in the mountains, I drive it very nicely not hard at all. Every once in a while I will get on it to get around someone but it's all flat driving. I'm also not towing anything. I really don't punch it when taking off, just a gradual acceleration. I'm finding my MPG is getting worse in town also, last tank was 12.7 MPG and this tank I am at 95 miles on the tripometer and almost down to half a tank! Which is worse than the last tank. I haven't had that bad of MPG yet.

I am taking it to the dealer next monday for the regular oil change, they gave me three free ones so I figured I'd use them. However, I don't really trust the dealer to do a thorough inspection, everytime I talk to them they give me some bogus excuse or tell me to wait and see if it gets better.

 

Is there another dealer around there you can go to? Listen- the way you describe the truck's behavior..I would be very firm in my demeanor towards them. Speaking directly from experience, the only way to wake up that damn service dept. to do what you need, you gotta be not so passive. Trust me-they will respond or not respond accordingly. You paid a big number for your truck right? To them your truck is either another job or a potential liability. To you it's WAAY more than that. Don't allow them to dismiss you this way.

 

So I took my truck into the dealer this morning and they called me back and they found the problem!!! Only I was very disappointed to hear that the problem was my OVERSIZED tires and more ethanol in gas these days. My tires are 32 inches. Stock I think is 31. I would hardly call my tires oversized. They ran diagnostics on the exhaust and fuel systems and found nothing.

I have kept track of every single fillup and charted everything on a graph. The trend is that my mileage is going down. My average is 14.6 MPG. My latest tank was 11.8 MPG. Highway is ok at 16 - 16.8.

Why is it that a full size Ford or Chevy truck, with a 5.3 or 5.7 liter V8 engine can get as good or better mileage than a 4.0 liter V6? The sticker on my truck says an EPA rating of 16 MPG city and 20 MPG highway. So am I just suppose to live with 12 city and 16 highway in a toyota? Is there anything I can do?

 

Boy am I glad it's not serious-good 4 you! I'm wrong on a few things, this is one I'm glad to be way off on

 

I had a problem similar to that. Except mine was water damage to the floorboard. You may want to try to look in the cooling fans and such to see if anything is in there. And if that dont work I would def take it back to toyota and have them fix it. Or maybe a professional car cleaner will know what to do about the smell.