acarapella

Hi. Between having horrendous mileage with nearly all highway driving, and loud ticks about 10 per second when I first shut off the car, I'm pretty positive my third cat (under the car's center council area) is clogged.

I plan to gut it. I am sure I can so the job easily. And I am 99% certain that because it is 30 inches AFTER all four O2 sensors, I won't get an engine light and infact the computer won't even know.

I don't need legal advice or a lecture unless you want to hear my life story and why I don't have $550 for a California emissions unit. I don't mean to be rude but these are hard times for us and I need my car to run better for little to no money. My question is: with that cat empty, will the car run right?

acarapella

Maybe it's more like four per second. Say "miss-is-sip-pi" for a second, but say "tick-tick-tick-tick" and that's how fast it ticks.

ES300NZ

if your summation that the particular cat is clogged up with deposits is correct, then yes.

Personally I think you are probably wrong, and the loud ticking is simply metal cooling, or rather the exhaust is getting too hot because of some running issue such as wrong air fuel mixture (too lean). If the cat were 'clogged' the exhaust would not flow well, the car would have trouble reaching higher RPM's or would not produce power (much) when it did.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I see your in W-NY (Western New York?) If so, and you're in Buffalo, NY, I'd suggest Mufflerman on Kenmore Ave before you start cutting and chopping stuff up. They helped me with my ES330 Flex pipe and GS300 muffler and cost me almost nothing.

PFB

I fully agree with ES300NZ's assessment. There is probably nothing wrong with your Cat converter. If you were to gut it, you WiILL trigger a check engine light, and in the process, destroy a perfectly functioning and very expensive component.

And as ES300NZ said, The tic tac sound that you hear, is indeed the normal sound of the exhaust system cooling down after you shut off the engine. Many Lexus cars do that, including mine, and there s nothing wrong with mine.

Phil

acarapella

How would trip the check engine light if all the sensors to monitor the exhaust are long before the catalytic converter that I'm talking about?

acarapella

Also, how in the world would I check the fuel air mixture let alone adjust it? On my Chevy, there is a screw on the carburetor. A vacuum gauge on the manifold and a good ear will tell you everything, but clearly this is different. The fuel mixture supposed to take care of itself isn't it?