If everyone can bear with a little story,
I'm a bit confused and need a bit of help
with my 98 V6 Contour:
- My CEL came on and I drove it for a bit
with it on, about 2 months (don't yell)
- I then took it to a garage and they said
- the upstream O2 sensor was bad
- the catalitic converter was
having problems and need to be
changed, bad smell they said
- take it to Ford they said, it
might be covered under the 8/80
emmissions warrantee
- So I took it to Ford, and the CEL wasn't
on (cleared?) and they couldn't find
anything, no stored codes, and no bad
smell, they said the cat was fine. So I
took it back and said I would bring it
back in if CEL went back on.
- CEL was off and on for about 2 more
months, and one morning it stayed on and I
brought it in to Ford again.
- they said the CEL was BOTH
downstream sensors needed to be
replaced
- they said the cat was fine,
checked twice, no smell, and
testing said it was fine
- I took the car back, intending to
do the sensors myself ($160
instead of $500)
- A CEG list group guy here in Austin helped
me out with his OBD-II program (thanks
Ryan!) and we found a code P0311, weak
upstream O2 sensor again, but no
downstream O2 sensor issues.
So, here I am. Car is running fine, but
before I replace anything due to CEL and codes, I want to sort some stuff out. I'm a
bit worried that the cat might be getting
build up from unburnt gas, etc.
So, can someone please advise me on what I
might do? Ryan helped me clear the CEL light
so there are NO codes right now. We're waiting until the CEL comes back on to test
again what that code will be. So for the
moment I'm standing pat. The car is running
OK, so I don't want to do anything I don't
have to, but I do want to get the car back
to healthy if I can.
Car info:
98 Contour, V6, standard 4 door sedan
running well, good maint, no strange noises, etc
- Every once in a while I get a
rotten egg smell from the car, but
not that often
Thoughts?
- should I heed the next CEL code?
- should I clean out the cat with any
cleaner?
Thanks,
Carl
