Catalytic converter crisis

[letusbuyyourcar]

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[gaprider0]

Try a cat eliminator

 

[CliffB]

Seriously. And the recyclers pay way more than the public would for them anyway. Ford convertors are worth the least followed by Dodge/Chrysler. But the GM "Breadloaf" cats used to bring over $100.00 each. And the import cats have even more catalyst material in them and used to get up to around $150.00. One dumbass in south GA got crushed back in 2012 trying to hacksaw the cat out from under a BMW while it sat on the factory jack. He laid there all weekend.
Catalytic convertors used to be the best money in recycling/crushing cars. Next to that there was cashing in A/C units. But so many of them got stolen that you can't recycle one now without proving you're an A/C tech.

We had a rash of them living on the outer edges of Dekalb county. Coworker came to work, parked, went out to his truck at lunch cranked his truck and sounded like he had glass packs. The thieves were just sneaking around the parking lot with a sawzall hacking off cat's.

 

[Smiley]

Okay, this sounds bogus but I kid you not, we do it every year for one of our work trucks. Go get this: http://m.oreillyauto.com/mt/www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/CRC6/05063.oap and follow the directions exactly. Third year in a row and our truck passes every time.

If that doesn't work order the complete Walker (OE) pipe with cats here: https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1430690,parttype,5808 if it's a v8 for around $550. Less if it's a v6

 

[Gaducker]

How many miles? Who ever told you that they don't know which one is bad should not be repairing cars. Bring it to Newnan leave it with me a for a week and I will get it to pass, without a new converter and with out a cheater but its not gona be cheap.....
Diagnostic time is all it takes to figure out why your converter failed. Converters dont go bad, Systems up stream of the converter cause the converter to go bad. A converter should last the life of the car if all systems are kept in check. Folks say aftermarket converters don't last long????? Well its true when you just slap on a new converter and don't actually address the original problem that caused the factory oe converter to go bad. The Oe converter has a much bigger load than any converter you can buy at autozone or advanced. So you want to do all you can do to NOT take that factory cat off.

Now if you have burned the converter down and it sounds like rocks in a metal bucket then theres no way around that unless you buy one from ford.

 

[kuduboss]

I've held off posting this for a couple of weeks but I'll never again doubt the good intentions of the ODT'ers. I've managed to get over 20 responses in an hour and some decent leads. I think it's fairly obvious that I'm not mechanically inclined but I'm about to get an education. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Smiley]

Also, make sure your aft-cat O2 sensors are working correctly. If you can find someone with a laptop based OBDII reader you can usually look at the O2 voltage in real time on a graph. Sometimes you can get away with a new sensor aft-cat, which will read higher and make the system think the cat is working correctly.

Oh, and if you use the CRC product take it to an emission inspection as soon as the light goes off. That crap only works for a little while. I don't know what's in it, but it works for me.

 

[LibertarianComrade]

I spent 8 years selling auto parts. Try to get OEM-style/direct fit if you plan on keeping the car for awhile. They do seem to last longer. I don't know how mechanically inclined you are, but other than getting the bolts to break loose (emphasis on loose, not break) it should be a fairly straight forward parts swap. The clearance to get the assembly in and out is the only real factor. Without a lift, this can be problematic.

All of that being said, make sure you know which cat it is. Bank 1 or 2, and upstream or downstream.

Not that I would ever condone this *wink wink*, but rumor has it that some emissions places pass more cars than others. Just throwing it out there.

 

[sniper22]

So is the truck running bad? If a converter is bad the truck will run like ****. Starting to think you have a bad sensor after reading all of this.

 

[Sagan]

Also, make sure your aft-cat O2 sensors are working correctly. If you can find someone with a laptop based OBDII reader you can usually look at the O2 voltage in real time on a graph. Sometimes you can get away with a new sensor aft-cat, which will read higher and make the system think the cat is working correctly.

Oh, and if you use the CRC product take it to an emission inspection as soon as the light goes off. That crap only works for a little while. I don't know what's in it, but it works for me.

If you are ever in the Powder Springs area, I've got an OBDII reader that MIGHT be able to check those for you.