Egg-like smell

has anyone noticed an egg-like smell when driving their car? i have an 01 gti vr6 manual, and my guess is the cat. it is esp. smelly when accelerating hard.

i'm not sure what the problem is, and i don't want to go to the dealer yet. any help is appreciated...i'll be glad to provide more details if needed.

come on guys, there has to be someone here who knows what i'm talking about. this problem has been happening on and off since i bought the car.

Egg like smell is caused my very lean mixture.

Most common problems on vr6 is coilpack, o2 sensor, maf sensor.

Also, if you use regular gas and not premium the car will run lean and the exhaust will smell. Try 2 tanks of premium fuel and a can of injector system cleaner on the 1st tank. THat should help alot.

wow, lean is def. not good. would you say that this is decreasing the car's performance significantly? sometimes i put in premium (93), and sometimes i put in mid-level (89), so this maybe the problem. should the dealership have noticed this problem during scheduled maintenance, etc? in addition, this problem has been happening since the car was new, so is this the indication of a hardware problem (MAF, o2 sensor, or coil pack) or can it also be attributed to the quality of the fuel? i really appreciate your help w/this.

Problably not. Just always use premium fuel and Drive it hard once in a while.

MAF sensors and coil packs and o2 sensors go bad eventually. They can all cause lean mixtures.

I used to have a 96 GTI VR6... when my cat. went it smelled awful. Also replaced the MAF around the same time. I thought bad coils tended to smell more like fireworks? *shrug* girls know nothing.