Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting cats just replaced; any reason to change oil/filter?

All of the catalytic converters in my 95 SE w/71k miles were replaced at the dealer yesterday. That's the second replacement; first was around 40k miles.

Forgive my ignorance, but is there any reason why I should change the engine oil and filter? The cats were plugged really bad (car was running horrible for at several months, probably due to the cats) and I don't know if this could somehow affect the engine oil. I don't mind changing oil & filter out if it's a good safety precaution, but it's $20 worth of pretty new Mobil 1 oil in there so I don't want to change it if there's no reason to.

Any other smart maintenance items I might do at this point to undo damage done by the plugged cats?

I would have thought dealer would have advised if anything else had to be done.
You say the cats were really plugged, did you see them and could you describe? Thanks.

I didn't see 'em with my own eyes. I'm just going off what the service guy mentioned and the text on the repair order.

Service advisor did not recommend any additional maintenance.

Since I don't really understand how an engine works, I was just wondering what kinds of things a plugged cat might effect.

Well since the cats are in the exhaust system any crap should be pushed out the back end.
I don't think turbulence could cause crap to go up to the exhaust valves and into cylinders since it would have to fight gravity and exhaust gas pressure. If it did of course you would have scored cylinders, valves and valve seats, and possibly bye-bye engine.

thanks. I hope that last stuff you mentioned does not happen!

the biggest effect plugged cats wil have is they will increase EGT and cylinder head temperature and maybe make the oil run a little warmer.

The only thing I would do is check the oil level to make sure the oil is right where its supposed to be, at the full line.

Jason,

I'm glad to hear this turned out to be the cats and that you were able to get them fixed under the recall/warranty. I missed the warranty on my second set of cats by about 3K miles and couldn't get the dealer to budge on any reimbursement.

Yes, I'm pretty happy about it too. Sorry you missed the boat by such a narrow margin.

Is 30-40k miles the consensus life expectancy of the cats on the early Contiques? Are the replacement cats any more sturdy or long-lasting than the originals?

I wonder if the lower levels of zinc in the newer formulations of oil will help the cats last longer.