General Chat

Travelled back from Nottingham yesterday. Stopped at a Little Chef about 70 miles from home for a '-cuppa'. It had been a good journey up until then - no hold-ups. Then we started hitting the traffic - stop - go - stop - go You know the kind of thing I mean. then almost home and we hit the football traffic Newcastle playing Saints at home. So we were stopped in the traffic once more about 1 mile from home, and Tom open his car window and Oh, the smell, it was vile. Never smelt anything like it before, and thought it was something in the air........but it wasn't, the smell was coming from under the bonnet. As we had a new clutch fitted about two months ago, Tom thought it may be that and took the car in to the garage this morning, the mechanic checked everything out and all appeared to be in good order, and he didn't have a clue as to what the smell might have been. What puzzles me is 'why didn'nt we get the smell in the car when we were zooming along at high speeds, and it only hit us when the car was stopped and the window opened?' So anyone got any suggestions as to what it might be. There was no petrol smell to it, no electrical smell. Imagine a dank wood full of rotting vegetation and brussel sprouts etc.and it might give you a bit of an idea. Norah

If you find out Norah, please let me know! I asked my husband last week whether there was something that had died under the bonnet. Could it be anything to do with the air conditioning, do you think.

Hi Norah, I know exactly what you mean,can still smell it now,almost glad we dont have smellavision.hehe. Although not technically minded,it is something to do with a catylic or catylitic converter,whatever that is,it has happened to us,you can imagine the comments with kids in the car,trying to work out who it was,sorry it did bring back the laughter,but the stench is horrible.A mixture of rotten eggs and farmyard manure. Perhaps there is a mechanic on here who could give you some advice. regards trish

From the way you describe it , its likely to be something airborne ,a refuse lorry further up the road ,a farmer spraying crops ,or slurry, if your engine was cooking or you had wires burning you would know about it believe me,If a smell like that came into my car at speed i would be worried but at a standstill with the windows open ,it,s coming in from outside ,not underneath.,unless the smell is rotten eggs,as has been suggested ,if so ,its Quite normal ,they all do it.Denis..

not a mechanic or anything but I thought it could be to do with the cat. not the pussy type! That sometimes cause a smell.

my clutch always smells like fried sprouts if it overheats, whcih it does if I ride it too much in crawling traffic. It's fine when it cools down

It probably was coming from a car in front of you with a faulty catalytic converter. They give out a smell like rotten eggs :o( It usually only happens before the engine is warm, which is why I don't think it was your car. Sue

Hi Norah. I called my husband, who works in the parts department of a car dealership and he didn't have any real suggestions. But like others have mentioned, it could be the cat converter but it usually smells like rotten eggs, could be the clutch if your husband was "riding it", or it could be the brakes if they got overheated. Could you have run over something? (Sorry, just a thought.) Does it still smell? Good luck.