Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Catalytic Converter

I had it taken into Ford and thats what they said it was. Ofcourse the want to replace the whole thing. I'm not sure if its the precats or main? Just figured I would start with the main because it is the cheapest. I prefer a modified car but since I plan to sell it I believe it would be more desireable to more people if its in stock form!

bump

You do have to find out what cat is bad. The precats are the most common and will set the CEL. The main cat can only be tested via tail pipe smog test. I assume the car runs and we are not talking about a clogged or restricted cat?

jeff

I assume you are out of emmission warranty? that would be 8/80K. w/ '97 you might be in for another couple of weeks depending on mileage, eh? no?

what was the reason to take it to Ford? MIL? if so, you have a problem w/ pre-cat not the main cat. as stated above, main cat is not controlled by PCM and so can not trigger MIL.

now, the cheapest way to fix precats is indeed to gut them. your problem is that it is strictly illegal and so you will have a hard time finding a shop to do that.

Well I guess the precats are probably bad, but I pulled of the Main and it had a bunch of debris in it. I then tried to blow air through it and it is severely plugged. Probably need all three.

check to see if you are still withing warranty. like he said, its an 8 year 80k mile warranty, you just might get lucky and get the work and the cats for free.