- Location
- Portland, OR
So, my wife and I have been smelling the notorious rotten egg smell from the FX's exhaust every so often for the last several weeks. I have researched this issue pretty thoroughly and also personally experienced the problem on other vehicles; It has always been due to the failure of one or both catalytic converters. After I found some info here on the scene about the Federal Emissions exhaust system warranty extension (96months/80,000mi), I scheduled an appointment with my local dealer and dropped off the FX yesterday for repairs. By noon today I had received no word so I assumed they had found the culprit and were working to fix it.
I get a call at about 2pm from a 20-something kid who works at the dealership and the first thing he asks is what kind of gas I use. I told him that I fill up with premium at Shell 90% of the time and the rest of the time I go to whatever decent station I am near. I then ask if the reason he is telling me this is because my cats are not faulty. He says "My master technician (I giggled) says the cats are fine and also that its really common for people who use Shell gas to report the sulfur smell because Shell puts sulfur in their gasoline." I immediately asked to talk to this so called master technician to get a technical explanation but apparently he was not available. Thinking I could catch him before he went home for the day, I jumped in the loaner EX35 and headed across town to the dealership. Well, when I get there the master tech is conveniently absent and when I start asking the tool I talked to on the phone questions his face goes blank like I just asked him to recite the ins and outs of quantum mechanics. To make matters worse, just when I'm getting annoyed he tells me I owe them $55 for an inspection and it's not covered under the extended warranty because the cats aren't bad. Then I look at the invoice. It says they were "unable to replicate issue" and that part of this inspection included measuring the tread on my 2 week old tires! Now I'm well beyond annoyed and I can tell that talking to this guy is going nowhere so I pay the $55, get my keys and leave.
I didn't even make it 2 blocks before I smelled the rotten egg smell again.
Sorry for the long story but here's my question: Before I go back tomorrow and interrogate this "master technician", is there any way this smell that is getting progressively worse is the sole product of using Shell premium gasoline? I have used Shell gas for years and use it currently in my A4. NEVER have I smelled this smell from the Audi and never have I heard of this ever happening to anyone else.
I get a call at about 2pm from a 20-something kid who works at the dealership and the first thing he asks is what kind of gas I use. I told him that I fill up with premium at Shell 90% of the time and the rest of the time I go to whatever decent station I am near. I then ask if the reason he is telling me this is because my cats are not faulty. He says "My master technician (I giggled) says the cats are fine and also that its really common for people who use Shell gas to report the sulfur smell because Shell puts sulfur in their gasoline." I immediately asked to talk to this so called master technician to get a technical explanation but apparently he was not available. Thinking I could catch him before he went home for the day, I jumped in the loaner EX35 and headed across town to the dealership. Well, when I get there the master tech is conveniently absent and when I start asking the tool I talked to on the phone questions his face goes blank like I just asked him to recite the ins and outs of quantum mechanics. To make matters worse, just when I'm getting annoyed he tells me I owe them $55 for an inspection and it's not covered under the extended warranty because the cats aren't bad. Then I look at the invoice. It says they were "unable to replicate issue" and that part of this inspection included measuring the tread on my 2 week old tires! Now I'm well beyond annoyed and I can tell that talking to this guy is going nowhere so I pay the $55, get my keys and leave.
I didn't even make it 2 blocks before I smelled the rotten egg smell again.
Sorry for the long story but here's my question: Before I go back tomorrow and interrogate this "master technician", is there any way this smell that is getting progressively worse is the sole product of using Shell premium gasoline? I have used Shell gas for years and use it currently in my A4. NEVER have I smelled this smell from the Audi and never have I heard of this ever happening to anyone else.
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