Sulfur odor....

My 97 Continental, while driving at freeway speeds, 75-80 in Arizona I start noticing a strong sulfur odor inside the vehicle, the car runs fine, lots of power witch probably eliminates a catalytic converter problem which I thought might be it, but after research on cat problems the vehicle is supposed to run like crap if thats the problem, anyone else experiencing this. BJ

Sulfur smell is from overheating cats. If it's running 'fine' then the cats are clogging. As it gets worse, they'll start glowing red-hot, performance will begin to suffer.

Sulfur smell is from overheating cats. If it's running 'fine' then the cats are clogging. As it gets worse, they'll start glowing red-hot, performance will begin to suffer.

Hi Steven, thanks, man it takes a long time to get an answer here. Do I have any alternatives here? Can those be cleaned or am I going to have to replace it. Damn car only has 55,000 original miles on it, this kinda stuff should not be happening yet.

-- Man it takes a long time to get an answer here.
-- Do I have any alternatives here? Can those be cleaned or am I going to have to replace it.
-- Damn car only has 55,000 original miles on it, this kinda stuff should not be happening yet.


I know, we're turtles.. sorry. Seems like we're down to three or four regulars now, and no Continental folks at all. Cougar214 was helping us out w/ Conti's for a bit...

There's no cleaning Cats... some folks destroy the innards to get 'em flowing again, but short of that, their replacment items.

55,000 miles -- you're right, that's way too soon. Grandma driving and short hops around town will tend to clog the Cats sooner 'cause they spend less time at normal operating temperature. That being said, some high temp./ normal driving may help a bit. :)

Also, and I can't endorse this stuff, but there's some liquid products out there claiming to help cure this problem before it gets worse.
>> one such product (http://www.autobarn.net/chcat-1.html) << >> another one (http://www.edirectory.co.uk/pf/880/mia/d/cataclean+fuel+system+catalytic+converter+cleaner+ twin+pack/pid/4388838) <<

Try this post (http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:-ImejEiFRnEJ:forums.beyond.ca/showthread/t-2658.html+Catalytic+converter+cleaner&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=14)for some funny reading :)

Thanks Steven, couldn't hurt to try it.

BJ,
One more thing just occured to me -- if you're getting the odors inside the car as bad as you make it sound, you might consider checking the trunk seals to be sure their not leaking exhaust gasses into the trunk / cabin.

:2cents: