euphanom

d16y7, 98 civic.

My CEL is throwing the fun and exciting P0420. According to my mom (who owned it before me) the mechanic "removed" the cat converter for some unknown reason. I pop the hood and I can still see "shell" of the converter under the exhaust manifold.

Anyway, this wonderfully asinine state of Arizona has the ever exciting emissions test and will NOT take it in the shop until the CEL is off.

What I was wondering is, are there any aftermarket straight pipes or anything I can buy INSTEAD of replacing the cat converter?

I'm also confused as to whether or not the car has 2 cat converters, or just 2 o2 sensors. I can't understand why they would put 2 cat con. on a car, but maybe I'm just an exhaust noob.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks so much

E

TwoFacedCustoms

What do you mean by "removed"?

If the shell is still there did he just get a rod and smash the screens and stuff out of the cat?

I don't know why the shop wouldn't take it if it's throwing a CEL but I've never lived in an emissions-crazed state.

If you just take off the battery lead for a couple seconds to reset the ecu does the CEL come on instantly or will it stay off for a little bit? If so just reset the lead right before you go to the shop so they see the code is clear and then have them start work

Saroset

Texas is the same way, if you're throwing a CEL you cannot pass inspection.

You *could* just go for a straight pipe, but you might not pass emissions. As far as I'm aware, it's a national requirement that all cars sold since something like '88 that came from the factory with a cat must have a cat installed that at least meets OEM specs. That said, there are shady shops out there who will take a few bucks to overlook a straight pipe. It'd be more expensive but easier in the long run to get high flow cat.

euphanom

I'm not sure exactly what the mechanic did. I was living in another state at the time. I haven't pried off the heat shield yet to see exactly what's there. I have tried clearing the CEL by pulling the underhood fuse, and it does go off, but maybe 2 hrs later it comes back on.

Before it comes on, it idles really rough and low, sometimes stalling. Once the CEL pops back on, the idle adjusts itself and all is well, except for that effing light... lol

I'm just going to assume that the cat. is effed and I should replace it, but I just want to see what others have to say...

Thanks for your reply.

TwoFacedCustoms

For reference on the straight pipe...highly doubt you'll pass the emissions...and the CEL probably won't go away at all. You can use an o2 simulator (I think Blox made one?) that just spaces it out and will usually fix the CEL problem. If you can't find the blox thing or don't feel like waiting there is a couple of threads on electrical o2 simulators which involves hacking up some of your harness or some nonsense...or the mechanical ones

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php...9&hl=simulator

That's a good write up for a cheap fix with parts you can generally find locally.