sulfur smell when i punch it???

[ToyTech99]

from what i understand, its the sulfur in the additives they put in fuel, the engine isnt burning it completely, & the converter is storing it, then releasing it as hydrogen sulfide when you add load to the engine & force more air threw, you get the smell. if this is true, then its nothing new & certainly not just a 4th gen 4runner thing, because you can smell it coming from a multitude of cars on the road. it is said that changing the cat, or switching to a gas with less sulfur may help,... i cant help but wonder, maybe thats why most suvs dont come with motorized rear windows, personally, im not sure why, in this day of where everyone has AC, someone would drive around, with the rear window down, considering all the exhaust fumes on the road today, 4 & a sunroof isnt enough i guess, but hey, whatever floats your boat, i did it years ago myself. the smell is just something we have to live with. but it does bring to mind that old adage, - remember what the doctor said to the man , who asked him , dr. it hurts when i do this,

Well, personally I don't buy the whole sulfur in the fuel theory. I used the same gas station for all of my vehicles over the years and none of them ever had the strong smell that comes from my 4Runner. There may be other cars on the roads that have stinky cats too, but I believe the majority of them do not. I've personally never owned any other vehicle that had this issue, so I'd have to say it is isolated to 4Runners from my own experience.

 

[4Runner8]

well even when all the windows are up i get it so......

 

[crunner]

second that!

Like I said earlier, Nissans seem to have issues with it as well.

 

[chaz]

man i gotta laugh, i made one small statement earlier, & some posters have had a problem with it. i certainly never intended to start a debate on this issue, not even presents different possiblites for such a thing, but for me , the fact of the matter remains the same, 1) ive been driving since 1972, even before cats were on 4x4s, & have smelled plenty of stinky cats in my time, & having owned well over 20 vec.s, even had a couple, 2) ive spent over 12 years in the sewer dept. so i know what a strong rotten egg smell is like, maybe my sense of smell is dead, like someone said, but anything less is almost a tiptoe thru the tulips. 3) im not trying to argue with anyone, but i still stand by my little one line statement earlier, for whatever reasons,,- i must be one of the lucky ones, because i dont have or notice the stinky smell problem others have,- if that bothers anyone to the point that they need to insist, debate or disprove it, i politely suggest they do it with someone else cause im finished, if the cat smell bothers someone so much, that it brings them to this point, just change it out, problem solved, maybe. & im also not sure the OP had debate in mind when they first asked the guestion.

 

[ToyTech99]

man i gotta laugh, i made one small statement earlier, & some posters have had a problem with it. i certainly never intended to start a debate on this issue, not even presents different possiblites for such a thing, but for me , the fact of the matter remains the same, 1) ive been driving since 1972, even before cats were on 4x4s, & have smelled plenty of stinky cats in my time, & having owned well over 20 vec.s, even had a couple, 2) ive spent over 12 years in the sewer dept. so i know what a strong rotten egg smell is like, maybe my sense of smell is dead, like someone said, but anything less is almost a tiptoe thru the tulips. 3) im not trying to argue with anyone, but i still stand by my little one line statement earlier, for whatever reasons,,- i must be one of the lucky ones, because i dont have or notice the stinky smell problem others have,- if that bothers anyone to the point that they need to insist, debate or disprove it, i politely suggest they do it with someone else cause im finished, if the cat smell bothers someone so much, that it brings them to this point, just change it out, problem solved, maybe. & im also not sure the OP had debate in mind when they first asked the guestion.

Wow, lighten up. I didn't even know we were arguing about this. To me, it's just a simple discussion on how & why 4Runner cats stink so much. I don't think anyone is going to lose any sleep over this though.

 

[Uneek]

chaz,

I'm with you. Normally, I don't drive with the back down because the exhaust can get into the cabin. I had to drive with the back window down for a 5 mile trip from Home Depot. The closet solution wouldn't fit by a few inches and I had to stick it out the back window. No sulfur smell at all. I know the exhaust was getting in the cabin since it was making me light headed, but no stinky stuff.

I always thought maybe I'm lucky when I read the sulfur/cat threads, but I never had the sulfur smell with the 4Runner. My Camry on the other hand stank, which other members of my family thought the sales guy farted when he got out to swap with me during the test drive and first couple hundred miles.