Two days ago, I was driving the blue VE around for a few hours during the day, errands and whatnot. I put probably 150 or so miles on it tooling around town and driving my gf out to the airport. It was about 96-97 deg. that day and I had the A/C going full blast pretty much all day

Early in the evening I was going to my brother's place to have dinner with him and his wife. All of a sudden, at an intersection, I got this very very strong firecracker/dynamite type of smell, and the car started to run as if it were misfiring really badly. I freaked out and turned right around and went home and parked the car, so I drove it this way for maybe 10 minutes total.

Does anybody have any idea what this could be?

The only thing I can find referenced anywhere online about a firecracker/dynamite smell is burning gear box/drive train oil (from some Toyota truck forums) but those guys didn't mention the engine running poorly, just the smell.

Another forum mentioned it's the smell a cat makes when it's going out, but my cat is brand new, and this smell did NOT smell like the smell I've typically associated with catalytic converters.

The car has ran fine since, but just to be cautious I've been driving my Civic since I'm still freaked out. Ideas?

 

Check your spark plug wires. One may have come disconnected and is laying on top of the exhaust manifold.

 

If only it had plug wires.....

 

Check every wire then.

VG/VE same damn thing.

 

If only this was true..

vg= regular distibutor type sohc/ with regular wires.

VE= dohc coil on plug design

vg/ve= apples/hand grenades...


highly doubtful any of the coil wires are the cause, they are very thick, and all in factory wire looms..

Sure, check them anyway, but i suspect the issue is elsewhere..

 

BUSTED

 

Sulfur smell? I wouldn't worry too much. If it was electrical smoke and plastic, that would be cause for concern.

 

Hmm, well, this doesn't smell like the clogged/burning/bad catalytic converters that I've smelled over the years. I know sulfur is in firecrackers, but this is not the straightup sulfurish smell you'd expect from anything to do with the cat. The smell was also for sure coming from the engine bay.

Lets say it is something to do with the cat though, why would the car run so crappy?

 

Let's not say it has something to do with the cat if it is coming from the engine bay

 

I'd put my vote on electrical of some sort. toasted a sensor or an ignition coil or something like that. pop the hood and start looking for carnage. usualyl with electrical you can still smell it hours/days later and you should be able to find it with your nose.

 

I looked at it pretty extensively today and couldn't find anything. I also drove it a few miles and it drove perfectly and ran fine.

Could this in any way be related to my ks bypass? I'm running the stock ECU at about 14 deg. timing and 93 octane gas. I did NOT hear any pinging or anything like that before this happened (but then again I'm not sure I'd be able to hear it with the a/c on full blast).

 

if you cant see anything damaged or melted and its driving fine, i wouldnt worry unless it happens again.

probably a 1/10,000 chance, but maybe you were around a construction site or something else with sulfur and you just suddenly had a random misfire there?

 

+1 along with a hint of bad gas in your tank?

 

I really don't think it was that.. I mean, I smelled it hardcore at the intersection, and it definitely "followed me home", so it WAS coming from my car.

I dunno the possibility of it being bad gas. I exclusively use Chevron 93 octane, but I guess it's possible.

I drove it around some more today with no issues at all. So I'm really stumped. I'd hate to get stuck out somewhere and it do this, especially if I don't know if it's causing any damage when it happens. Luckily when this happened I was a few blocks from home

 

another thing ive heard of is plastic bags melting on exhausts, maybe you ran over a plastic bag that had something funky on it?

really though now it sounds like something more

 

Might be an anomaly going on with one of your coil packs. Check your plugs one of them probably did something strange.