I've noticed when I start my car, it runs very rich. It literally makes my garage smell horrible. But heres the thing, it doesn't smell like a gas pump, it kinda smells like rotten eggs. It's a pretty bad smell, unlike gas. I've been told clogged cats can cause a weird smell especially on startup. THEN, i also noticed on startup, my cat sounds like it has rock in it. I confimed this by banging the cat and sure enough it was the cat making noise. My car also doesn't spin the tires like it used to, especially for a tpi. Could a clogged cat be the culprit of loss of low end torque and that foul smell?

 

Yessir!

 

Yes.

Also remember, cats dont die, they tend to be murdered.

Usually a result of rich running/ign miss, etc or stuff like bad AIR diverter valve blow torching it.

Might be to check things out when u go to swap the new cat on

later
Jeremy

 

That can explain alot! When I first purchased the car, it was ideling way too high (1500 rpm) and it was rich due to it had 95k on the ORIGINAL o2 sensor. No wonder that thing is toast haha

 

Ex-Lax in the Friskies?

That "dead" cat may not be dead. An operational cat will make lots of sulfur odor when heated (as 3.8 suggested). That doesn't necessarily mean it's clogged or dead.

Since your's has the telltale rattle, it's fairly certain it is a terminal case. But just in case other are reading this and notice that heavy sulfur odor, don't immediately think the converter is no good.

Find out why it's running so rich, fix that, then install a high-flow three-way converter. The O² sensor will not cause a rich condition on cold start, since the O² is not even referenced until the engine has been running and is warming a bit.