I've searched through the site some and I remember some threads a while back with people complaining about a kind of burning egg or almost sulfuric smell coming from their Z's exhaust (esp when driving hard), but all of those seemed to be new Z's, as in during break-in period.

I never had the smell when I first got my Z (about 14 months ago) and I have a little over 20,000 miles on her now. And just in the past couple of days I noticed the smell. Some people thought it might be the catalytic converter needing to be cleaned/replaced... anyone else have this problem or any info?

I still haven't called Nissan yet, I'll see what some people here think before I have to coordinate with school and work to take her into the dealership

Thanks in advance

-drew

(ps - only power mods that have been done is Invidia exhaust, everything else is stock engine and exhaust wise)

 

I had that problem in a previous Z. It was because the car was running too rich due to an electrical problem in head temp. sensor. Computer thought it was always cold.

 

I heard a gas company is gettin sued because their gas had too much sulfur in it. It caused major damage to peoples gas tanks. Lotta pissed off people looking for some money.

 

DaveZ - If that's the case with my Z, do you think it would be covered under warranty?

Donald -
Any word on which gas company it was? That would definitely suck for those people with damage to their gas tanks

Thanks for the responses

-drew

 

It was Shell. http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1951430

Sorry link doesn't have much info. Just search for Shell and Sulfur.

 

Most likely you got a tank of high sulfur gas. This happens occasionally when a refinery screws up. It is especially likely when gas supplies are tight, as they are right now. Refineries aren't as likely to be as picky about the sulfur content of the crude oil they can get, or as careful about the process controls used to handle crudes of differing sulfur content.

Note that gas stations get their gas from a brand distributor who in turn gets his gas from a pipeline company. The pipeline company's buyers buy gas from whatever refinery has some available when they need it to keep the pipeline full. So there is no direct connection between the brand name on the gas station and the refinery which produced a particular run of gas. One day a Shell station may be selling gas produced by a Texaco refinery, the next load may come from someone else's refinery.

Gas is gas at the pipeline level (they do segregate by octane number). It only gets branded when a delivery truck shows up at the pipeline terminal to fill up to take it to a gas station. At that point, the driver adds a little kool aid packet to the 10,000 gallon load. That packet is the individual brand's proprietary additive package. Sometimes he forgets, or just doesn't have any packets with him. No one notices. In other words, this differentiation between brands is virtually a moot point. What matters is how careful the pipeline fuel buyers are. If they insist that refineries meet a particular standard, all gas sold in that area will meet that standard. If they're sloppy, then you can get gas that varies in quality from time to time from *any* station in that area.

 

Are you spraying nitrous oxide?

 

Yes, mine was covered under warranty as it happened within the first year I had the car. No matter what the problem is with yours, something isn't right so it should be covered under warranty.

 

There was a documentary (TLC or Discovery) about the country's fuel delivery system, and I must say it's quite amazing. Watching all of the commercials of the different gas companies bragging about how their gas is better than their competitors is quite funny after having seen this. It's all just Gasoline until it hits a truck and those additives get mixed in.

Different types of petro products are sent through the same pipelines and because of the varying densities of the fluids, they aren't even really separated physically. 100,00 gallons of gasoline might be sent through a pipe, and then 100,000 gallons of diesel may follow immediately after it without the pipe ever being "emptied" The point where the two fuels "touch" (the trail end of one and the head end of the other) is often sold off for non-vehicle uses. Occasionally "intelligent slugs" are sent through the pipes to health-check and clean the pipe walls.

What will they think of next?

 

Even worse at the tank farms 10,000-100,000 gallon batches [from different refineries] get mixed together to fill the really big tanks.

The major problem was Florida where the sulfur destroyed car fuel level sensor but no one even considered the long term effect on cats.