Recently I've noticed an acetone (paint cleaner) type of smell when I start the car in my garage - in the morning.
(Even my wife asked me if I spilled some chemicals around).

Would that be caused by the type of gasoline (ethanol blend) or something - converters? go wild?.

 

Wild guess: if you live in a colder part of the country, they do all sorts of interesting things to the winter blend gas, as we just switched over to winter blend a little while ago. It used to be MTBE, now it's ethanol (as you mentioned). Maybe it's some additional additive that particular gas manufacturer is adding in the fuel? Do you always go to the same place to get gas?

I don't think the cat's would cause a smell like that when cold. When hot, perhaps some oddball chemical reaction, but cold....?

I'll keep scratching my head.
-red

 

Very good point, thank you.
Very cold the last 3 weeks – that could explain the smell=> as the ethanol has lower efficiency end s.o, the manufacturer could add acetone to facilitate the combustion.
Even 94 octane gasoline was introduced recently. As we live on 1200m above the see level and it’s very cold, the octane requirements are reduced- will switch the grade.
I’ll monitor the smell, change the gas station.
(In the past I experimented with acetone in a number of vehicle I had – never found a positive proof to use it.)