In reply to Duke :
Its not a clogged cat, it's a worn out cat. Different beasts.
In reply to Duke :
Its not a clogged cat, it's a worn out cat. Different beasts.
bobzilla said:In reply to Duke :
Its not a clogged cat, it's a worn out cat. Different beasts.
Yes, which is why I'm going to recommend fixing the symptom cheaply rather than the cause expensively.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I always thought an operating cat would be hotter at the outlet
Well, they've opted to fix the car properly at fairly significant expense. $2300 for the precat and both o2 sensors. Ouch.
It was probably the right decision for them, but I might have tried my idea first. I told them they could ignore this particular CEL for a while without long term damage, and they could always fix it properly later if the bandaid didn't work.
Thanks for all the input. I appreciate it.
So... the saga continues.
The owner was telling me a few days ago the car felt down on power at launch, but seemed OK once cruising. He couldn't be very specific about what it was doing and I didn't get a chance to drive it. He said there was "a humming sound" but no knocking. He's not mechanically inclined so communication is a bit ambiguous.
Today it stranded on the side of the road and wouldn't restart. His FIL came and they tried to jump start it - wouldn't turn over and eventually started smoking. Had it towed to the nearest garage. They called to say the engine is locked up.
They just had the oil changed 2 weeks ago at a different shop; I think the one that did the maintenance the first time around. Apparently the shop that has it now says oil level is low. My friend the owner still says it doesn't really spot the driveway.
If they are very much not car people - it's probably a really good thing (for you) that they paid a bunch of money to the shop instead of letting you put a spark plug anti-fouler on the O2 sensor. There won't be any lingering "if you had let us fix it right then it might not have blown up" out there. Not that one would have anything to do with the other, but sometimes that causality can get lost with the level of knowledge that leads to adding oil to an engine to solve a CEL.
My neighbors' kid has a Sonata that has some oil consumption issues and when they were talking to me about it, I did a little looking around and it sounds like they did have a little problem with that to the point that I think there's a class action lawsuit going on right now. The specific years and models didn't make the cut to be saved in my brain, so I don't know if it's germane to this particular situation. But might be worth looking up.
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