Smoke And Egg Smell Add To List Of Issues

[njmac]

Hi again,

I had some brilliant advice from some of you previously when I was doing some work for a friend's C5 petrol 2.0 16v. Basically he was getting anti pollution fault, catalystic converter fault and oil pressure fault. So far I've changed the cat (which is pretty much the whole exhaust bar the back box), both lambda sensors and the oil pressure sensor. Citroen have run diagnostics on it a number of times and have changed the auxilliary fuse box, which is apparently a common problem.

After all that there were no errors for a few weeks but they've all come back again. Add to that that it's hard to start when the weather is a bit colder and the car generally runs very badly. It stalls quite a bit and it has about as much power as an early 90s 1.0 micra. not good for a 2.0 petrol.

This morning he called me and asked how bad is white smoke and a smell of egg. apparently he got this when the car started and after a few minutes running it has cleared and has gone back to "normal" (normal being the usualy crappy performance, not factory standard). He has checked the fluid levels are OK and there's no emulsification in the oil. I'm pretty stumped. I don't know what to advise him, other than push it into a river.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

cheers

Nj

[myglaren]

'White smoke' is generally steam, could be down to environmental conditions (cold & damp, car not used for a while/used for short trips). It never warms up properly and a lot of condensate (water and unburned hydrocarbons, SO^x & NO^x)collects in the exhaust.

Bad egg smell is usually indicative of a cheap cat but in this case could be contamination of the cat, a decent brisk run (100 miles or so) could sort a lot of the problems out if it is only used in town and for short journeys.

[njmac]

brilliant, that's a good point. Not being present I took his word that it was smoke rather than steam. I'll ask him if he's using it for any kind of distance or just around town. I'll tell him to take a good run and "give it the beans" to see if it helps.

[paul.h]

If the bad egg smell (hydrogen sulphide gas from burning fuel with a highish sulphur content) is not from the exhaust, I have also had similar smells from a windscreen washer bottle when it had gone mouldy needing cleaning out and also from a car battery when in need of replacement.

 

I can not remember all the things done to this car and its mileage but presume it has had a good service - new spark plugs, air filter, cleaned out the throttle body but also has a check been done on the engine compressions and timing (in case the timing belt has slipped or is installed a tooth out) ?