Catalytic Converter

brianpavlovic · October 28, 2004

:wacko:

I am interested in replacing my catalytic converter and wonder how difficult it would be to change? There is a funny smell of rotten eggs and I can only imagine that a 10 year old car with 130K would need a new one! :D Any suggestions?

-Brian

steviej · October 29, 2004

before you spring for a new cat, try several different brands and grades of gas. Some brands have higher sulfur contents than others.

Cats are expensive and I would hate to see you spend all that money to find out it wasn't that cat that was the problem. Almost every recent make of Lexus has a TSB associated with "sulfur smells from the exhaust".

If your emissions testing is passing, then you cat is performing the job it is supposed to.

steviej

sgriffith · October 29, 2004

Cats are indeed expensive...just had to replace the first one on my RX and it was $1100 plus labor. I would live with the smell before I shelled out that kind of money.

brianpavlovic · October 29, 2004

What does TSB mean and thanks for the help! I was using Wawa gas, but recently I tried that V-Power from Shell and the car seems to run alittle better! Meaning that I do not smell anything! Hey, one more question, Does you mile per gallon go down when you change oil brands? I do not want to start a debate, I am just asking!

:cheers:

steviej · October 30, 2004

TSB = Techincal Service Bulletin. These are usually generated by the manufacturere to notify dealers, mechanics, owners, public, etc or new repair procedures, upgrades, part replacements, etc. Most can be found on www.alldata.com

as for changing oil brands and seeing a change in you mpg, probably not. Some have argued that changing oil type (conventional to synthetic) will increase your mileage by about 1 mpg. Then there are those that don't see any increase when changing. Everone has their own anecdotal accounts.

lastly: Yes, oil questions will always stir up debate, especially between a select few members. It is getting old. If you have an oil question in the future, please use the search funciton as it has most likely been asked and beaten to death previously.

steviej