Please suggest a shop that might be reasonably priced.

Rusty Muffler

aggiepaintrain said:

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Rusty Muffler

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Since there are no more inspections in BCS, is it required?

Could it be cutout and a straight pipe welded in?

dubi said:

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aggiepaintrain said:

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Rusty Muffler

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Since there are no more inspections in BCS, is it required?

Could it be cutout and a straight pipe welded in?

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Yes, absolutely could be, and that's what I would do, but most likely doing so will make your check engine light stay on constantly, masking any possible other problems when they come up. There are some O2 sensor "Foulers" that pull the O2 sensor out of the air stream enough that the light / code may go away, but they are not that effective in my experience, so you'll probably just have to live with the code / light.

Is the car driving poorly? If not, then I would be inclined to just leave it as is. If the engine is not exhibiting any signs of running poorly, the only thing you are hurting is your fuel mileage. And a straight pipe won't be any different in that regard.

But technically, to answer your question, yes replacing it is "required" to meet federal emissions standards, but in BCS there is no requirement to test it to prove you are operating without the CAT. Shame on you for thinking about cheating the system :-)

But OEM on RockAuto or generic on Amazon and go to any muffler shop for install.

Less than $1k on my Tundra when the dealer was like $8k and 6 months wait.

Roger350 said:

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Is the car driving poorly? If not, then I would be inclined to just leave it as is. If the engine is not exhibiting any signs of running poorly, the only thing you are hurting is your fuel mileage. And a straight pipe won't be any different in that regard.

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Yes, it is driving poorly.

There are probably smarter people to answer this than me. But there are 2 reasons I can think of that it is running poorly - the Cat is actually blocked up and restricting your exhaust flow enough that the engine is not breathing freely enough. If this is the case a straight pipe would solve the problem.

The other reason could be that the post Cat O2 sensor reading is making the computer change the fuel curve trying to compensate for the condition. But I really doubt this is it, because I think the post Cat O2 sensor should only affect closed loop tuning like at steady highway speeds but I am not a tuner so I could be completely wrong.

I know Mr. Dubi works on your fleet, I would probably take a sawzall to cut the cat off and see if that makes it run better. If it does make it run better then it was reason 1 above, and welding in a straight pipe is a good permanent fix. Making the cut just in front of the "brick" but behind the attach flange should make it no more expensive or hard to repair than not cutting it at all.

If cutting the Cat off does not change the poor running then a replacement Cat and possibly O2 sensors are probably needed, or someone willing to tune it with a wideband O2 to accommodate the loss of the Cat. Either way, you'll have to pay to repair it, so just buying a Cat off of Rockauto is probably the best solution.

Rather than cutting the Cat off, if it has bolted attach flanges before and after it, Mr. Dubi could just remove the Cat cleanly by removing the bolts after being soaked for a day or two in PB blaster. But cutting it off will be quicker.

What symptoms?

We have a 2011 Accord with about 150k miles. It's been a little rough lately.

maroon barchetta said:

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What symptoms?

We have a 2011 Accord with about 150k miles. It's been a little rough lately.

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Very sluggish and has been for a year. I do not know if they have evaluated other things that could cause that.

Not my car and I've gotten the info 2nd hand.

Have you taken it to BVA to see what they say?

Clean the MAF sensor, throttle body, pcv and buy Cataclean to put in your tank.

My F150 threw cat codes. It was the downstream O2 sensor. Changing it out was like $20

If someone is even mildly handy with a wrench, changing it would be my first step.

maroon barchetta said:

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Have you taken it to BVA to see what they say?

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A friend's car.

I know she had it diagnosed, but unsure where.

Roger350 said:

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dubi said:

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aggiepaintrain said:

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Rusty Muffler

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Since there are no more inspections in BCS, is it required?

Could it be cutout and a straight pipe welded in?

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Yes, absolutely could be, and that's what I would do, but most likely doing so will make your check engine light stay on constantly, masking any possible other problems when they come up. There are some O2 sensor "Foulers" that pull the O2 sensor out of the air stream enough that the light / code may go away, but they are not that effective in my experience, so you'll probably just have to live with the code / light.

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Spark plug de-fouler.

If you can get the downstream O2 sensor off (sometimes easy, sometimes not) it could be $10 and a 30-minute job.

I did it with my '00 Odyssey when it had 160k on it and it still passed emissions with flying colors. Odyssey boards suggested this fix b/c Honda has a tendency to set the tolerance very low on the catalyst out of range error code.

I sold it 60k miles later and it was all still fine.

Son's highlander is throwing the same code on Bank2. When I hooked it up to my sensor though the downstream Bank 1 and Bank 2 sensors both have the same output voltage value when it's warm. That tells me they're both working when it's warm. It is the cold start that is causing the error. If I clear the code, it will be fine then come back after a few days on cold start.

We did try CataClean and it worked for about a month then came back. I tried to remove the O2 sensor, but could not get it to budge and didn't have a torch to heat it up So we just check the code every few weeks to confirm it's not something else. It's been running fine and his gas milage has not gone down at all.