Hi all, I own a 2010 outlander V6 and I recently started noticing a gas smell from my exhaust. Y took it to the shop for new tires and when it was lifted up I noticed that one end of my catalytic converter had really poor welds, unlike the other end that looked like the standard welds from the dealership. Along with the smell, I have noticed a poor mpg on it. The mechanic said that it was likely that thieves tried to steal the entire catalytic converter but instead only cut one end of it to take out the minerals.
The suv was recently serviced with new iridium spark plugs, filters, new MAP sensor, clean MAF and oxygen sensors, and still it hasn't passed the emissions test. Also while idling the rpms bounce a bit, but performance is pretty much the same. The car was scanned but showed no problems in the catalytic converter and no check engine light is on. Any ideas as to why the smell and poor mpg? Were the minerals actually stolen?