Strong exhaust smell?
 

I went through the drive through to grab some food for the first time since I got my car and noticed the exhaust smell was pretty strong. I also noticed the far behind me was staying as far back as possible, think they smelled it too....

I know higher performance and bigger engine cars/trucks put out more fumes you can smell and that the rotary isn't that emission friendly in the fd but is a stronger exhaust smell normal? I'm not sure how old the cat is on the car if that would cause this.

Depends on if you have your car modded...

If you have a completely stock car, then yes there is definitely something wrong... When you say it has a strong smell, do you mean a strong fuel smell? Does it smell sweet? Any smoke? What color?

Is the car idling ok? Sounds ok?

Mods would be important...

It has an intake, downpipe, exhaust. I believe the rest is stock.

There's no smoke. I've only had small 4 cylinder engines before so that's all I'm used to. It's not sweet (antifreeze, right?) and doesn't smell like oil burning. Just reminds me of being behind something older and v8 powered. I know our cars run on the rich side so I wasn't sure if that was the cause

The car idles a little rough on startup but fine after it warms up. Sounds fine as well

Nemix,

from what you're describing, car sounds fine. Mods you listed are minor mods.... so no sweet smell, no oil, no smoke... car idles fine... power through-out all range?? (Didn't ask that...)

cuz "Strong" is a very relative word... so without more information about what's wrong, it's I'd lean more towards you probably just getting use to the characteristic traits of a 7....

Welcome to the rotary world my friend...

You'll have to expand on what you mean by "Exhaust". Do you still have the stock catalytic converter?

I have the stock converter on it but no idea on the miles on it and if it was ever replaced.

Not sure how you want me to expand on exhaust. If for example you were at a stop light behind a civic or an s200p you don't really smell anything. Sit behind an older Mustang or corvette with a 350 or larger engine and you can smell the car no problem. The latter is what I'm referring to smelling when my car was just sitting idling

The stock fd cat is enough to get it to pass the most stringent (California) of exhaust testing. It is gigantic and quite robust unless abused or purposely gutted. It shouldn't smell like an 60's mustang.

The emissions system needs 3 things to function: air pump, acv, main cat. And the associated solenoids and ecu to control them. Check that these are present and stock.

I'll take a look into it. It passed smog but was borderline in one or two of the tests.

If it passed smog, so that's your passing grade.
The exhaust will smell very rich for a minute or two before the cats light off.
After that, it should smell significantly better and not much worse than other modern cars.

If you have an exhaust leak before the cat, then it will smell a lot worse and would not be caught by the smog test.

the previous owner gave me a performance cat with the car and swapped it out himself to the stock one prior to me buying it to pass smog. I'll have it checked for leaks.

If it passed smog then just be happy it is Driveable and it passed!(it's a Rotary..don't confuse that with a piston engine's Capability to do a 100% burn)

I'd only worry if the exhaust smelled like ice cream or stale farts!

if you passed CA smog, then you clearly have a functional cat. i would suggest looking for gasket leaks, cracked welds, etc.

My FD smells strongly too. Barely passed CA smog but that was due to the aftermarket exhaust. Also premixing can make it smell I have found

Strong exhaust smell
 

Everything you read says that these cars run inherently rich for the safety of the engine. If the car behind you was hanging back so theirs eyes didn't water there's probably a problem, but at the same time, it def not supposed to burn as clean as a camry or an accord.