Hey guys after the snow storm I start the car it started after couple of tries
then took to the highway and the car first hesitated to go more than 40 Miles
and acted something is holding back. I parked the car and could smell really bad
odor when I opened the hood. Added to that, when given gas makes hissing
sound then I returned home. The car was running fine till the snow came
and did not use the car for 2days. I dont no wether it is anything to with the
snow or not. My car is 1990 honda accord ex.
Anyway I went to the nearby shop he told it is a catalytic converter gone bad
he showed me something inside the catalytic converter is lose when he knocked
on the CAT. My question is how it can happen suddenly.
No physical damage and did not hit snow. Does CAT has any kind
of life in miles as my car has 200k miles on it. Many suggested to change.
Should I have to change Oxygen sensor along with Catalytic converter ? Can any one give me any suggestion please. Thanks......

 

It could have been from age and the recent temperatures. Frozen in the snow then warmed up from the heat of the exhaust. If you hit some road debris or a well placed strike from a rock/pebble could have finished it off. Considering 200K you got your money out of it. Cats fail in two ways, they no longer convert the chemical bonds that they are designed for and your car no longer passes emissions, or the substrate inside breaks loose or melts and plugs the exhaust. The smell and hissing is from the back pressure from the exhaust leaking out probably at the front connection of the cat. Hondas are fairly easy to replace the cat. If you cannot afford the shop price you can usually purchase a Catco direct fit unit for ~120. Install yourself and save some coin.

 

That's what happens when the cat fails now how it fails.
Catalytic Converters are designed to last the life of the car. If your car at anytime runs excessively rich to where there is unburned HC's (fuel) going into the exhaust the catalytic converter then slowly starts to degrade. If you were to drive around your car while it was miss firing for a few months that would waste a cat. But the only other way to destroy a cat is like he mentioned, direct impact. like if you were driving down the road in a rut and there were a giant hump of snow in the middle of the two ruts which your cat was bouncing off of, that could cause the internal metals to break loose. and it can cause a hesitation as well as a very strong odor.

 

Thanks for you help guys the problem is solved when the catalytic converter is replaced.
I still want to make sure that do I have to replace the Oxygen sensor or not ? The
reason being the Caty died just with out any reason so I was wondering what caused it.
Is it aging, I did see it has been replaced once, in the year 2002 and the car has 200k.