Well I got bad news today. My recent engine problems are due to my cat being clogged. Dealership part is $600. Are there any other good options as far as what people have replaced theirs with? I need something that won't break again so. Has anyone taken out their cats? Not exactly legal but there aren't emission tests here in KY. Thoughts? I can't really afford to sink $1000 into this car
If there are no emissions tests in your state, (and you intend never to move elsewhere) you could get by without the cat. Go to a good shop that does only exhaust repair, including custom work.Originally Posted by James22
Will it run rough or different if I do that? Do I need to remove the o2 sensors if I cut it out? Thanks!
Having never done it, I don't know the answer to your questions. Maybe others here might. A good shop that specializes in exhaust work could advise you.
Here in Alberta there are no emissions testing, but we anticipate that one day there will be roadside checks for compliance. What we do at the shop is gut the cat and leave the shell in place. We then add extenders, commonly sold as spark plug extenders, to the oxygen sensors to slow the flow past the tips and fool them into thinking the cat is still there. We have had good success at this - it should pass a roadside visual inspection but certainly won't pass a sniff test. By the way, recyclers will pay for the cat material you will be throwing away.
Let's back up just a bit. First, what year and mileage? Cats have long-term warranties, which may come into play here. Next, who is telling you it's a bad cat, and how did they determine that? Was the CEL on, and codes read? (if so please list all codes). Has this Aveo been misfiring, and if so, has it been going on for a while? Any repairs or maintenance done recently? Last question (for now), what's the condition of the exhaust system (all pipes and muffler)? Lots of rust may factor into whatever decision you make (assuming it's actually a cat problem).
1. It's a 2010 Aveo with 70,000 miles. Rebuilt title so all warranty void
2. Local shop made the diagnosis after running several tests (heat gun test and pulled the o2 sensors)
3. Several CEL s including both o2 sensors, MAF, lean code (I'll pull the code numbers when I get home)
4. No miss firing, but does idle rough (rpm will bounce up and down).
5. Replace the air intake hose 6 months ago. The car was losing power and idling rough and I found a gash in the bottom of the intake hose. This likely let extra air in which the computer compensated by adding fuel. The incompletely burned fuel then blocked the cat up with lead to the premature failure (in my opinion)
6. No major exhaust issues or rust
Ok, if it ran well with the O2 our, that's usually a confirrmation of the cat being bad. And it was running well for an extended period after you fixed the intake hose? Unusual to take out the cat like that because these intake hoses split like clockwork on the first gens, and very few bad cats have been mentioined here.
You could eliminate the cat as mentioned above, or you could get a cat from Rockauto for around $350, and either do a DIY install, or maybe a shop would hang it on for $100 or so. But you might want to dig just a bit more about the warranty on the cat - it's a Fed, which might end-around the title issue (IDK, but probably worth another look).
Even $350 would be more that I would like to spend. I'll give it another try on the dealership warranty thing. I didn't realize that was a federal law they had to replace it, I only thought it was a warranty
You might want to read through the doc linked below, especially the appeals process which you'll probably need to do, if you want to try pushing this up the line. Maybe leafing through a hard copy of this while you're at the stealership might convince them you'll be willing to go for the jugular. I don't see anything in there about titles, just a bunch of stuff about failure to maintain (which is what they'll probably fall back on to deny the warranty claim).
Good luck! (you'll need it)
http://epa.gov/obd/pubs/420f09048.pdf
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2008 Pontiac Wave