Exhaust odor
 

I started my '00 Boxster S yesterday for the first time in about a month and noticed that the exhause had an unpleasant smell. Should I drain the gas tank or is there an aditive I can add? Please don't recommend that I find a long stretch of road and "air" it out...I just went to traffic court last week. The State Trooper was nice..he only wrote me for 99 in a 55. He stated that a triple digit ticket could mean my license

Any insight would be greatly appreciated

another option
 

While I have not had your exact issue before, I would suggest fresh fuel and a long drive to 'bake out' deposits in the exhaust system and on the motor to rule those out as the possible sources for your bad odor. Also, have you physically inspected to make sure there's not a 'critter' of some sort that may be getting cooked in there? (Unfortunately, I had that experience with a prior vehicle - gross :barf: )

How long has it been since you filled the tank? You mention that you haven't started it in about a month. That's not a very long time, fuel-wise. A long drive would probably help. I don't have to go any faster than the speed limit to heat things up.

Thanks for the insight...I filled the tank before I parked it. I drive it on occassion...but never to work. I work in North Charleston (7th in the nation last year for violent crime) and the roads here look like the Gaza strip.

Think I'll get up early and take it for a long drive. Hope it helps. thanks again

When I had my lawn mower repaired, the service tech advised me not to let fuel sit for more than a month, and not to store more fuel in my gas can in the garage than I would use in a month - because of the additives in the fuels these days make it goopy and crappy as it ages and a month is about the breaking point. Rather than drain the tank or burn it all out, you can add something like Sea Foam to it. Your car will like it for various reasons and you don't have to worry so much about the one month rule. You can also put this in your gas can, lawn mower, boat, etc.

On a similar point, when I would 'store' my motorcycle for the winter, the guideline for not getting rust in the fuel tank was to either keep it filled to capacity when the bike is not being driven regularly, or to drain the tank and make sure no moisture gets in it during storage. I would guess that something similar to this would be applicable with cars, but I haven't looked at the owner's manual in this regard since its not in my world of concerns. If I did have a situation where the car was going to sit, I think I would keep the gas tank at capacity with Sea Foam additive. Others will probably tell me if this is valid or not for the Boxster.

I had my 914's motor rebuilt, and then for a number of reasons, I essentially stopped driving it for about a year while it sat in my garage. I started it about 2 times during this period, and it sat for nearly 6 months before recently. Note this includes an AZ summer with typical garage temps of over 120 deg. F. It had about 1/2 tank of Shell premium in it, with whatever crap they ladle into here in AZ in the summer.

I decided to get it going again, get the registration up to date, etc. I charged the battery and primed the fuel pump (key on/of about 10x). It started immediately, ran perfectly. The gas in it was close to 1.5 years old. Didn't miss, smell weird, etc. Took it and smogged it, passed first try. I've been driving it regularly since then, and fueled it once so far, no problems to note at all.

IMO, maybe the problems with fuel aging are a bit overstated.

Good info. Hmmmm. I am starting to think a medium rare mouse may be the culprit, as hinted by Sloan.