Bad Cat - What would you do?

[P5SPDKILLZ]

The Ol' P5 has been burning oil for around a year, about a month ago had CEL come on but no change in driving behavior. I put some new plugs in since it was about time anyway. Light came back on, without paying to get the codes checked I'm guessing it is probably the Cat going bad from the oil burning.....Then today, as I drove on highway for first time in a while the car had no power once going above around 3500 rpms. At this point I'm not paying for a new converter (car is at 153k miles and on its last legs). Read up on the fouler trick and how the 02 sensors work, but if the Cat is bad it appears all that won't matter.

Tempted to just gut the pipe or remove and run a midpipe and such.

 

[esnave09]

It could be one of the two cats, more than likely the first if it's causing the CEL to go off since there isn't an O2 sensor after the second. So your best bet would be to remove the weighty exhaust manifold and (probably) rusted-on pre-cat (1st cat) and just put in a header. You will need to do the non-fouler trick anyways, but it will also free up your exhaust. Just watch out for the eBay headers, cuz those tend to be off on the EGR bung. I ended up leaving my EGR tube hanging behind it and closing the bung with a black metal cap (89 cents at Lowe's, hasn't failed yet).

Not saying you shouldn't, but the midpipe wouldn't be the issue. But it is optional.

 

[pcb]

Tempted to just gut the pipe or remove and run a midpipe and such.

OMG,.. R U serious ???

Read the damn code,... for FREE at almost any parts store near you,...

Or for a wallet killing $10 get one of these and then read/rub/display/record/analyze any codes you have,.. as well as EVERYTHING else your or anyone else's car, has to say to you.

(unless of course your CEL came on AND FLASHED telling you that you have an engine misfire meaning that your frying your pre-cat,... even if that did happen,... spend the ten dollars then charge your neighbor to read their code then you've got a free reader for your next car)

Read up on the fouler trick and how the 02 sensors work, but if the Cat is bad it appears all that won't matter.

The reason you do the non-fouler trick is because you have a bad pre-cat (or no pre-cat at all). It prevents the P0421 that results from a fried (or missing) pre-cat.

 

[rit14623]

I bought a new pre-cat. It was clogged and that pressure blew out the exhaust manifold to pre-cat gasket. I bought a magnaflow one and it fit okay. The bracket to hold the cat to the engine block was off a bit and I had to use extra washers as spacers. After that, the sluggish power response went away. The new gasket also got rid of the loud exhaust sound.

 

[lowlevel]

The Ol' P5 has been burning oil for around a year, about a month ago had CEL come on but no change in driving behavior. I put some new plugs in since it was about time anyway. Light came back on, without paying to get the codes checked I'm guessing it is probably the Cat going bad from the oil burning.....Then today, as I drove on highway for first time in a while the car had no power once going above around 3500 rpms. At this point I'm not paying for a new converter (car is at 153k miles and on its last legs). Read up on the fouler trick and how the 02 sensors work, but if the Cat is bad it appears all that won't matter.

Tempted to just gut the pipe or remove and run a midpipe and such.

Read the code before you condemn the cat.. it's probably just your EGR stuck closed.

 

[P5SPDKILLZ]

Last summer I got the EGR out, cleaned the hell out of it and oiled it up. Wouldn't think it would be sticking now.

Other beef with my car is I've had it at the Auto stores probably 6 times and they could never get the code reader to work for some reason (human error?).

 

[lowlevel]

Last summer I got the EGR out, cleaned the hell out of it and oiled it up. Wouldn't think it would be sticking now.

Other beef with my car is I've had it at the Auto stores probably 6 times and they could never get the code reader to work for some reason (human error?).

Mmmm... might be a wiring problem at the connector... try a different code reader anyway tho.
EGR problem typically comes back if you just clean them...

 

[pcb]

Last summer I got the EGR out, cleaned the hell out of it and oiled it up. Wouldn't think it would be sticking now.

If your burning oil then then you've got half burnt oil going through your valve. (I read that the oil you use to lubricate the valve just overheats, turns to gum, then re-seizes the valve.)

Other beef with my car is I've had it at the Auto stores probably 6 times and they could never get the code reader to work for some reason (human error?).

You could have a bad OBD port,... Have you ever had a code read from your car ???,...