ok, sister-in law took her 97 lx to autozone and the computer said it was the catalyst....not the o2 sensor like i would have thought. Has anyone changed a catylitic converter on these? Its on the exhaust manifold and rusted pretty good. Also, where is the best place to buy a new catylitic converter?

 

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That sucks.

On the 96-00 Civic with the D16Y7 engine (Cx/DX/LX) the convertor is built into the exhaust manifold, so it's hard to find any GOOD aftermarket options.

Honda wants a retarded amount for them, but aftermarket ones suck, and used ones will almost certainly be cracked at the Y pipe junction where the primary o2 plugs in because they're notorious for it.



http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com wants $418.00 for the manifold/convertor assy. Toss in another $20.00 or so for the gasket too.

The other shitty part is that the primary o2 sensor will probably either break, or will be fouled or damaged enough to not be resuable. Rather than buy this from honda there is an aftermarket alternative offered from both Denso and NTK - they are on par with Honda and I'd suggest this rather than a $200.00 Honda sensor.

The Denso or NTK direct plug-in type sensor can be found for around 1/2 price at $100.00 or so. they can usually be ordered through your local parts store, but whatever you do don't let them sell you a BOSCH crap-*** one - they suck.

Before you do ANYTHING though make sure the code is a P0420 for catalyst efficieny low - I'd have another place scan the code before plunking down $500.00 on parts.