Strong gas smell on set off

[riekey]

I bought a 2001 renault megane 1.4 expression. The milage is 65000. If iI park it for several hours and start the engine from cold, in the morning or after work, it makes a strong gas smell. It becomes ok after a while.

I think the smell is from the exhausts. I checked under the car and didn't find any oil on the floor.

Is this smell normal or a problem?

btw, the car has computer.

 

[malcolm]

Do you mean a strong smell that smells exactly like natural gas? Or just random gas fumes?

A natural gas smell is common from some types of differential oil (and maybe gearbox oil) when it has been overheated. I recall once a test engineer opening a small sample bottle of oil from a failed differential in the office. The whole office quickly filled with the smell of natural gas, the fire alarm was pressed and the whole place evacuated.

One good way to overheat the oil is to drop it onto the exhaust. If it's the same type of oil (ours was some really high performance stuff) it would only take a single drip to overpower the neighbourhood.