Yesterday I backed my WRX into the garage like I always do. I got a little close to one of my bicycles, so I got out and bent over to look between rear quarter panel and the wall to check how close I was. The car was still running, and I got an unmistakable whiff of ammonia coming from the exhaust. I've never smelled ammonia coming from the exhaust of any vehicle.
Did a quick search, and found where someone else had the same thing and asked about it, and one of the replies suggested that Shell puts some kind of nitrogen additive into their gasoline, which could be causing it. I do try to use Shell gas. As a matter of fact, I'd just filled up at a Shell station (always 93 octane).
A question for you chemists: Could certain oxides of nitrogen give off the smell of ammonia? Aren't these oxides of nitrogen the very compounds that are deemed to be harmful to the atmosphere and/or promote greenhouse effect, and aren't they the exact compounds that the EGR system and catalyzers are designed to dispose of?
Something else, which, I'm not sure has any bearing on this, is that I'd just come home from running the car pretty hard on some curvy, hilly backroads for a couple of hours, enjoying my new set of Continental ExtremeContact Sport Tires. So, everything had definitely reached operating temp and been kept there for a while.
The thought crossed my mind that this could also be the result of the interaction of exhaust gas products with the catalyst. But, again, I've never experienced an ammonia odor coming from the exhaust of any engine.
Anyone else experienced this?
Did a quick search, and found where someone else had the same thing and asked about it, and one of the replies suggested that Shell puts some kind of nitrogen additive into their gasoline, which could be causing it. I do try to use Shell gas. As a matter of fact, I'd just filled up at a Shell station (always 93 octane).
A question for you chemists: Could certain oxides of nitrogen give off the smell of ammonia? Aren't these oxides of nitrogen the very compounds that are deemed to be harmful to the atmosphere and/or promote greenhouse effect, and aren't they the exact compounds that the EGR system and catalyzers are designed to dispose of?
Something else, which, I'm not sure has any bearing on this, is that I'd just come home from running the car pretty hard on some curvy, hilly backroads for a couple of hours, enjoying my new set of Continental ExtremeContact Sport Tires. So, everything had definitely reached operating temp and been kept there for a while.
The thought crossed my mind that this could also be the result of the interaction of exhaust gas products with the catalyst. But, again, I've never experienced an ammonia odor coming from the exhaust of any engine.
Anyone else experienced this?