Catalytic Converter?

what'd they do at the 60k service?

 

if they did a fuel induction or fuel injection service, it may be related, but otherwise we're talking about a strange coincidence.

easy to burn out a cat doing an induction service...

 

It's a federal law that 'Emissions Related Components' are covered for 8yr 80k miles. Catalytic Converters are certainly included.

For the Prius, the Tank Bladder and Thermos would also be in that list IMO.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Brenna @ Feb 18 2007, 07:34 PM) [snapback]392646[/snapback]</div>

Cars know when they're being replaced. I had a Jeep ran like a top for 180k miles, then on the day I bought its replacement, the alternator died and the water pump bearing failed, taking the fan belt with it.

 

Based on what you said ("run like a gangbuster..."), you might want to go easy on the gas pedal of Prius.
Excessive gas hurts catalytic converter and leads to earlier failure. Replacing cat-converter is very expensive
out of warranty. Since it is within warranty, I would just let them replace it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Feb 20 2007, 07:33 PM) [snapback]393676[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the information. At my 30K service they wanted to do an upsale and add injection cleaning and new tires. I told them no on both (but got the tires elsewhere).

 

I have recently been told I need to replace the catalytic converter on my 2003 Prius, and this did happen right after a service. I am suspicious - imagine that - of the dealer. Also curious about the other things that might have caused the check engine light to appear. It happened a couple of times before, and each time would go off again within a couple of weeks. It appeared to coincide with filling up at a particular gas station.

I have also heard from a number of people that there have been numerous problems with the the catalytic converter on the Prius. This just doesn't make sense in a car that has low emissions to start with, has a four-cylinder engine, and the gas engine is not running all the time.

I look forward to hearing from others. Thanks.

 

i am under the impression that if you are in california and if you have the newer prius (atzev) your catalytic converter is covered for 15 years 150,000 miles

 

I think the California 10 year 150k mile warranty is for the hybrid system only.


what i find odd is that 1 catalytic converter is failing... your prius does have 3 converters....


I use gas pretty heavily (for a prius) and i have yet to have anything fail at 104k miles.

 

Brenna, its not due to your age or gender. They do it to everyone. Maybe they had nothing to do with the cat failure. Maybe they caused it. In your case Toyota is going to pay for it so relax. Always be suspicious when anyone is trying to upsell. (Convince you to buy stuff that's not needed.) Galaxee's list of services you need & don't is a sticky. Download & keep it.

 

Catalytic Converter Woes

Hi There,

I too am having a catalytic converter problem, and I need advice about what to do about it. I have a 2005 Prius with 117,000 miles on it, and I live in Rancho Cucamonga, CA (yes, it does exist).

I noticed a few months ago that my car was getting increasingly sluggish, and then the "check engine" light went on. My service advisor told me to ignore it until my next service, so I did for about a month. I took it in for service and she said it was a old "engine not getting enough oxygen" code. She didn't think it was a problem and cleared the code.
About a week later, the check engine light started going on and off. It would turn on when I had about 3 squares of gas left, or when I was driving up a hill, and would remain off until I had driven it very slowly for a while or I had filled it up with gas.
I took it back in for its next service just this Wednesday. They told me it was the catalytic converter and that it was going to cost me $1700.00. They also said that my extremely dirty fuel lines were causing some of the sluggishness and that it if I had them clean those out my mileage (about 45MPG) would improve. I had them go ahead and do it.
Immediately after I picked up my car I noticed that when the car first starts and on short drives, it sounds like the car is idling or revving extremely high whenever I decelerate or come to a stop. I took it back to the dealer within an hour of them finishing Wednesday's service on the car, and he said it was just all of the extra junk from the induction service burning off in my engine.
So now, I'm not sure what to think.
1. Do I really need a new cat-converter, and if so is it really going to cost me $1700?
2. How long can I drive it before I break something else, because I don't currently have $1700 to fix it?
3. What's the deal with the high-idling thing? Will it really go away?
4. Have I now broken my car even more by allowing them to do the fuel induction service.

Help!

Mary

 

if the converters fail.. you pollute more.. if a sensor in the converter is going back.. and it's making your car never really notice a full warmup. then it may be a problem.

a lot of things that dealer did sounds odd. get a second opinion.

fuel filter maybe?

 

Re: Catalytic Converter Woes

i thought the california emissions warranty was 15 years/150k miles. did you buy your car there?

without the diagnostic codes that they found at the dealership, there's not much that can be said about what's wrong with your car at the moment.

$1700 is about right for a new cat, and you won't damage anything unless it's plugged up. if it's plugged up it could cause that sluggishness you noticed, completely plug it up and the car won't run until you replace it. but there are many things that can cause sluggishness- bad gas, you're near the end of the life of your spark plugs, etc.

how many miles have you driven since the service?

sounds like an injector service. and since the main potential problem with the injector service is burning a cat, which is already a problem, this didn't cause any more damage to your car.

 

Hi There,

Thank you for your quick response. The error code was P0420 - Catalyst System Below Threshold. I did buy the car in California, but I've done some research on these boards, and the consensus is that the catalytic coverter is covered by an 80,000 mi. warranty here in CA, which is indeed where I bought the car. I've probably only driven the car about 20-30 miles since the service.

 

The P0420 Catalytic Converter Solution,

A most of us with older 2001 prius are learning the P0420 is a pure money maker with the solution being a $1800.00 dollar repair. Not that gas is a lot less now not that im complaining my prius is worth a whole lot less now that gas is not $4 dollars a gallon. Think about it1 $1800.00 is hard ticket to justify but there is promise of a solution and for some you it may be questionable and for others such as myself it may become a
nessicity.

Last year I bought my prius used and not running with 175,000 miles. I bought a used HV battery got the car running and without thinking I went to state emissions test only to find out that I had a check engine light on(MIF) I immediately disconnected the battery to clear code and then passed emissions before the MIL came back.

This year that trick did not work due to a change in the state emissions standards. I could not understand how I failed and thought that my local shop was try to capitalize on a repair so I took a second trip to a different inspection station only to fail again.

The tech explained that the car computer needed to check its self first called a drive cycle and that until that was complete the state would not try the emissions test. This was the new change in the emissions standards stopping people from resetting their car computers with check enginle lights and passing the test. He explained once the car finished its tests it would find the original problem that put the check engine light one and the state would see it thru the Obd2 port and fail the car.

P0420 was the code. I now spent countless hours doing research on the internet. I could not find an OBD2 compliant cat to weld in the system and was considering getting a cheap aftermarket. I could not believe that a junk yard cannot legally sell me a exhaust system. I made multiple calls to a friend that works at mineke mufler shop now for over 15 years. He never saw a prius but he explained the P0420 code and told me that 99.9 percent of the time a new cat fixed the problem and the O2 sensors should also be repalced. I also brought my car to a muffler shop who has been around in Las Vegas for 30 years now and was told that they never saw a prius in shop before and they sent me to lunch to do there research. They could only due the same as the dealer afterall.

As I was driving my prius all around with live data on my Obd2 scanner I could not understand how the data on second O2 sensor was running slightly higher than the first. See! the computer in the car compares the readings of your o2 before and after the cat and compares the two readings. this is how most cars know when it is time to rplace the cat. I also learned the prius exhaust system has two catalytic converts on it the second one is after the air valve.

When I took my exhaust of the car to replace the O2 sensor on the manifold I saw the internal guts of my catalytic converter where completely gone disincarnated and now knew my O2 sensor readings where so close and accurate.

After thinking more about this I realized that pollution wise my car had pass the year before because of the second cat and the great efficiency of the atkins motor. But because of the high standards of Toyota with two catalytic converters and the states new methods for checking my car I was going to fail or pay $1800.00 dollars or throw the car away or sell it for pennies. I DONT THINK SO!

Accidental research on the internet brought me to a page that discussed a bypass circuit for the front cat. MIF eliminator. Racers use this in the desert when they remove there cat. It consists of a resistor and capacitor easy to get at your local electronics store. This is installed on the wiring of your second O2 sensor. What happens is the computer compares the front O2 sensor readings with the back O2 sensor. As the quality of your catalytic converter degrades over time these readings get closer until they get close enough to trip the P0420 code in the cars computer even though your emission standards are well above the states standards for the prius. I hope this provides some insight. I feel that although I did not pay my $1800.00 in cold cash I paid it in my research and time.

Roberzie