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civic vti 1999.

Car has decat and smells bad and toxic. I’m a sensitive individual so probably worse for me than others. There are no bad smells like egg smells however when near exhaust it just smells like a bad and chemical.

There are no distinct smells such as egg however I’m wondering is this completely normal? Are there anything’s I should look at to know if maybe causing exhaust to smell worse than usual. I know a dirty air filter can do it but mine is clean.

James Wilson
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  • What is meant by "decat"? Do you mean it no longer has a catalytic converter? How does it pass MOT? – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Oct 27 '19 at 20:55
  • @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 yes, no catalytic converter. It doesn’t currently have an mot. – James Wilson Oct 27 '19 at 23:16
  • Exhaust smells vary with the state of the engine, servicing etc What is a duty air filter? Heard of high performance... – Solar Mike Oct 28 '19 at 00:00
  • @SolarMike sorry I meant dirty. My car is at 165k miles. what sorts of states might a car be in to give different smells? – James Wilson Oct 28 '19 at 01:01
  • In general, yes, it's normal for a car to start "smell" after a cat. converter removal,although it's not the only reason. There're all sorts of aftermarket CCs available to rectify the situation. – max Oct 28 '19 at 11:39
  • @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Some places do a better MOT than others... One car I bought arrived with a fresh inspection sticker. As soon as I looked underneath I became very aware that it did not have a cat installed, and with the rust on the pipes this was not a new change... I live in an area that doesn't have classical scheduled in spections, but we do have "rolling" inspections (they setup random checkpoints on the roads or just pull over random cars) so the very first place I took it was to an exhaust shop to get a cat installed! – Brian Knoblauch Oct 29 '19 at 17:03

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Yes/no/maybe.

De-catting a car designed to operate with one is going to change the way the exhaust smells - in particular (and I'm assuming here that we're talking about a three-way catalytic converter as those would be the most common) removing the cats is going to increase the levels of Nitrogen Dioxide in the the exhaust gases, and NO2 can have quite a sharp, pungent odor at higher temperatures. Personally I've never noticed it smelling particularly bad on cars without cats but there's going to be some variance on what smells people do and don't consider "bad" - plus to be honest I've never really had the most sensitive sense of smell!

If the car is intended to be made road legal for the UK then you'll have to refit/replace the catalytic converter(s) anyway which likely makes this a moot point. If it's not intended for road use then it's probably something to consider whether you can live with in your intended use of the car.

The "rotten egg" smell that you say you aren't picking up on would be hydrogen sulfide - which you can sometimes get when removing a cat (or where the cat has started to fail), but you're unlikely to get that much, if at all in the UK - the majority of pump-petrol in the UK is either Ultra-low sulfur or even sulfur free, and no sulfur means no hydrogen sulfide.

motosubatsu
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