Rotten Egg Smell / Sulfur Smell?

I'm no expert but it might be an exhaust leakunder you car combined with a bad catalytic converter. Possibly the plastic fairings under the Prius cause air to sweep back up to the front of the car and enter the cabin air intake. Just guessing.

 

Charging a lead-acid battery (auxiliary 12v battery) can give off hydrogen sulfide (the chemical in rotten egg smell). Perhaps you are only smelling going up hill, since it is lighter than air. Or you are charging mostly when going up hill. Just a guess.

[Edit: I should note, that the original 12v auxiliary battery is sealed, so if you are smelling its chemicals, you will want to check it out, and possibly replace it).]

 

Isn't a rotten egg smell something to do with over fuelling the cat? Either that or a bad batch of petrol with too much sulphur in it.

I'd fill her up again from somewhere reputable and see if the problem starts to go away.

 

. I will make a wild guess that BECAUSE your AC is off, your HV may be overheating, this is very injurious to the HV battery. Run your AC high in the beginning and then moderate to comfortable for the rest of the drive. High temps are killers! :cheer2:

 

Consider switching brands of gas for your next fill up. If the smell reduces greatly or goes away completely then it was poor quality gas.

 

I get this sometimes too, although I'm not sure that I would associate the smell with sulfur. To me it smells like something heating up and working harder. It has never been associated with any sort of error code or problem, so I assume it's just that most of the time my Prius has a pretty easy time of it, so a bit of organic material builds up to later burn off when it works harder.

There can also be a similar smell from the battery vent on older Prius. Check out hobbit's page for more information.

Tom

 

No they are NOT sealed. The OEM battery in my 08 had a vent tube, as well as the optima I upgraded to.
I would check the 12 battery and see if the vent tube is plugged and popped out of the vent port.

 

I am surprised no one mentioned this thread yet:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...oubleshooting/81094-battery-smell-solved.html

 

I mentioned it, but didn't provide the link.

Tom

 

I must have scanned too quickly.

 

Another thought! you still may have a crap catalytic converter and your rear door seal is not air tight.

 

Let's assume it is sulfur smell. The 4 sources of sulfur I can think of are:

Sulfur sources
1. H2SO4 in 12v batt
2. Sulfur in Rubber (eg tires, maybe the EV and 12v batts vents rubber tubing per older post)
3. Sulfur in gaso (<10 ppm S these days - very low)
4. Motor oil zinc additive

The two sulfur smells would be H2S (rotten eggs) or SOx (burning matches smell)

Sulfur smells
1. H2S (rotten eggs) via reduction with H2
2. SOx (burning matches) via oxidation with O2

Sounds like we are talking a battery source if it is really rotten eggs. I must do some checking myself. Never had any battery smells from 2006 Prius. Apparently both batteries can make some H2 that could react with rubber vent tubes? Not sure. If it was SOx smell I'd go with tires rubbing or possible cat converter. Maybe burning motor oil but thats a long shot. Probably nose can smell H2S at trace levels, so that may be what is happening.

 

did you manage to find out what it was? i am also smelling somehing quite sharp in my cabin

 

Ignition coil or sparl plug issue on 1 or more cylinders?

 

Hey wow I remember saying that. Apparently Originally Posted by ITGuy1024 so you'd have to message him. Also you probably saw my post to check your air filter inside the car vent system.

 

I just had this same exact problem. My car was smelling like sulfur / rotten eggs and it wouldn't turn on at all. The car was dead, dead, dead. The "Security" warning light kept coming on, as if the key wasn't registering. Weird!

It turns out that it was the Auxiliary Battery in the back of the car next to the spare tire. I bought a replacement (Optimu YellowTop battery) at autozone and, voila, the car came back to life. I saved myself a whole day of hassle by doing it myself.

You'll need a socket(?) wrench with 12mm and 10mm pieces to do the replacement. It took about 15 minutes.