[duncan]

Hallo there,
I changed from a Citroen C5 to a Cmax 2.0TDCI for towing my caravan, superb towcar by the way. recently I was away and when stopping noticed a strong gas smell from the car. The smell went away after a short while. It was raining quite hard and I wonder if it was just from the cat converter as I have heard these can be smelly after driving through puddles. Anyone else experience this and what is the cause?

 

[Richard G]

The only smell I know of from a "cat" is like rotten eggs and that is USUALLY ONLY just before they fail

When you say "gas" do you mean like the gas we use in the home because that is not a natural smell just something added to make it detectable as Methane (basic constituent) has no smell?

 

[MetalMicky08]

Hi & welcome.
I agree with Richard.The other thing,do get the smell when the car is on the flat,Facing up an incline or down an incline?
If it is on a downward incline,you might have a leak in the fuel system.
Here`s hoping.

 

[duncan]

Thanks folks,

No it was not rotten eggs it was more like the stench added to natural gas and the car was flat.
I had just driven 140 miles or so towing the 'van and it was raining quite heavily for the last few miles so maybe that was the cause

 

[lawe]

Now that is Bizarre! I have had the same thing.
I thought what could it be but put it down to "weird" smells outside. But what I did notice is that the smell went and a few days later the red light came on and engine systems fault came up.
With the help of a friend, the error code has pointed it to the DPF additive.
So I wonder if there was a leak in bottle or if you run out of the stuff then this is the smell given?

I should say that I have 2.0 TDCI 54 plate that has liquid DPF but Ford have changed this to a "solid" system (n the exhaust??)
I hope to get this sorted out within a couple weeks, now that funds will be available.

 

[Richard G]

I note that the original "gas smell" came when towing a "van". You wern't managing to get any calor from the "van" sucked round the tailgate were you ( loose fitting tailgates have been known to allow exhaust fumes to be sucked it)

The DPF is I believe similar to the catalyst in a petrol engine in that it encourages the re-burning of the carbon hydocarbon and oxides of nitrogen in the exhaust. The liquid is just an additive to increase the combustion process. One propriatory name is ADBLUE. see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdBlueor put adblue into Google for further info though I'm not certain about a solid system unless the catalyst has it included

 

[duncan]

Thanks for more help, I'll have to wait for rain to try and recreate the problem or not hopefully
Living in Scotland I shouldn't have to wait too long for rain!