What has happened to make the petrol smell so disgusting over the last couple of months !
intrade,
Feb 9, 4:43pm
do you mean out your exhaust! if so it be a faulty catalitic converter. warm the car up and go for a blast on the motorway make sure your car has not a overdue timing belt or overdue oil change etc as you got to drive with almost redline 3th gear 100kph to get the cat redhot glowing and operating clean again. usually nanadriving and short trips do this to cat converters. if problem still exists then oxigen sensores also knowen as lambda sond have to be checkes for correct function by mechanic usually there is 2 of em one before and one after cat .thats for when the smell is from exhaust
panicky,
Feb 9, 6:44pm
turn your aircon on to recirculating
mark.52,
Feb 9, 7:38pm
The petrol has a bitter smell, and has ever since unleaded was introduced.
The aromatics used to boost the octane rating (in the absence of the the evil tetra-ethyl lead - which smelled sweet ish) stink. Not only do they stink, they are a powerful carcinogen.
I've noticed that cars that haven't reached operating temperature, boy racers (they seem to run over-rich) and anything with a defective cat seem to be the worst offenders.
mm12345,
Feb 9, 10:26pm
The aromatics ("BTX") actually smell quite nice - hence why they're called "aromatics" - "T" is the solvent of choice for many abusers.But the "B" in "BTX" is very nasty - if you can smell it, then you're way over the exposure limit.It causes leukemia (not "suspected of" causing -it does full stop, and this has been known for a very long time). Lead is pretty bad too of course.
Anyway, the level of "B" (Benzene) in NZ fuel is now very low.At the time they switched from lead to unleaded high octane - it was very high, and worse because the cars that did have catalytic converters then would have probably been killed by lead, most cars didn't have O2 sensors controlling mixture, and many would have been pouring out considerable quantities of un-burned benzene in the exhaust.
tuttyclan,
Feb 10, 2:48am
The petrol has a bitter smell, and has ever since unleaded was introduced.
Unleaded fuel was introduced here in 1996.Some older cars without a cat converter can smell a bit compared to car with a cat converter.Sounds like your car has no cat or its blocked causing a sulpher/rotten eggs type smell.
neville48,
Feb 10, 3:10am
From what I have been told CATS do not come up to operating temperatures for at least 20 minutes of highway running so how effective are they in our part of the world anyway.not very !.
annies3,
Feb 10, 8:45pm
Actually my car is a diesel and has virtually no smell at all, no I was refering to the smell of unburnt petrol it is disgusting lately, all we use it for is the ATV and mowers etc, I just hate using it. Is it carcinogenic ! just the smell as you fill a machine !
clark20,
Feb 11, 1:08am
You been told wrong, less than a minute
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