Really bad exhaust smell

[kbear]

Car is a 2006 MT with under 7k miles. Ever since I got it and put about 2k miles on it (purchased it used), it's had an awful exhaust smell that I notice when parking (I park in a basement). It smells like "rotten eggs" or what you'd call the sulfur smell. I had this smell on my last new car but it went away after a while--this one is not going away.

Could it be a bad catalytic converter? I read about that in the tC forum, but not sure if the tC and xA share the same cat.

Anybody else experience this? If so, and have replaced with a Magnaflow/Car Sound cat, which one did you use? Thanks!

[tona59]

17K miles and never noticed a smell when i park it, but when i start it up, it smells much like exhuast. whether im inside our garage or just parked outside, the exhuast smell is very evident during start up.

[cobb]

Rotten egs is teh typical exhaust smell of a bad cat. Maybe the car was idled a lot and the cat burned up?

My car smells like a typical car when cold, then it becomes very clean smelling.

[xaXA1138]

Yeah I think its your cat.
Replace it and flush all your fluids too JIC.

[duck_dodgers_24_5]

or either that its a new exhaust system

i had that smell when i installed my new TRD axle back muffler a few years back...

[kbear]

The muffler is not new, even if the seller replaced it right before she sold it to me. I've driven about 2000 miles and still get the smell, and it's as strong as it was the first time.

Going to look into replacing the cat. Thanks for all the responses. I hope I haven't damaged my engine from a semi-clogged or defective cat.

[kbear]

Two more questions before making the plunge:

1) Are spun catalytic converters better than traditional (?) ones?

2) Is the xA piping 1.75" or 1.5"? Would it matter if I just got a 2" c/c?