rfurious33

I have a 2002 IS300. I have a check engine light and a friend of mine hooked it up to a diagnostic and it came up as a bad catalytic converter. I contacted Lexus and they told me that there are two catalytic converters. One in the headers and another in the exhaust manifold. Is there any way that I can know which one is bad? Also is there any other place that I can get it cheaper. Lexus wants $900 to $1300. A lot of websites that sell car parts don't sell a catalytic converter for the 2002 Lexus IS300.

Thanks,

Rob

llllllllll

iTrader: (1)

You won't find these parts used at any salvage yards, it's illegal in most states to sell used exhaust parts. gay i know...

check the IS300 Classifieds section here.
people sell these all the time for cheap.

Matter of a fact I know there is a black 02 IS300 sitting in NY being parted out right now...
He prolly has what you need. His name is Kevin... kraven09@aol.com

Oh and just pray it's not your o2 sensors...
That's a beotch to fix because there are 4 of them and they're like $175 a piece..

DonCorleone

iTrader: (6)

There are two in the header and one on the y-pipe. Check the clublexus or my.is classifieds, stock header and stock y-pipes are posted pretty regularly. You can also post a "Wanted to buy" thread asking for those parts as well.

Are you sure it isn't the o2 sensors? They tend to go bad before the cats do plus they're much cheaper and easier to replace. What codes are you showing for the CEL?

rfurious33

Thanks for the info. A friend of mine did the diagnostic and didn't tell me the code. He is a mechanic for BMW and isn't too familiar with Lexus. I took it to Autozone to double check and they told me it came up as air getting into the gas tank. I don't think that could be it.

Thanks,

Rob

DonCorleone

iTrader: (6)

loose or malfunctioning gas caps have thrown CELs in IS300s.

llllllllll

iTrader: (1)

Is your car showing any strange symptoms, (funny noises, smells, feel sluggish) or just the cel came on for no reason?

IS3_FTW

iTrader: (3)

There are 2 cats on the Headers and one on the ypipe. If you look in the engine bay, from the passenger side. You will see your headers under the intake pipe. You will then see two huge canisters, connected to the Headers. Thats your cats.
The o2 sensors are the thingy's with wires coming out of them. You will see two of them near the top of the headers, where they meet the motor. And the other two are after the cats. One will be seen if looked down to the ground, near the firewall of the car. The other one, will be accessed through the passenger seat. you will need to remove the passenger seat to get to it

If you can find the code, which you will get from Autozone, with an OBDII tester. Post it up here, and we can tell you what your problem is.

You can go a cheaper route, and buy an o2simulator, from o2simulator.com. They work wonders, for a cheap fix. They run $40 and thats all you need

rfurious33

No smell. The car does feel a little sluggish when I drive though. That's why I believe that it's one of the cats. I just don't know which one. I took it to autozone and they ran a diagnostic. They didn't give me a code, they just told me that air got into the gas tank. They reset the CEL but it came back 2 days later. I guess I will take it back and have them do it again and ask for the code.

Thanks,

Rob

llllllllll

iTrader: (1)

Yeah ask for the code is your best bet so you can do some of your own research too. You can easily use the search feature on this site or MY.IS and plug in your diagnostic code and you'll most likely get a ton of threads created by other Lexus owners.

jhill20

iTrader: (1)

Ok so if your cat is bad you should have a p0420 stored as current in the vehicles computer or PCM. This is a cat efficiency code and stores when the PCM see the downstream O2 sensor behaving incorrectly. If in fact the p0420 is stored I'd say fairly likely 80% that one of the cats is bad. As far as what Autozone told you that is an entirely different code. It is an evaporative emission system code. So you should definitely have it scanned somewhere where they kind of know what they're doing.

A good driveability tech will be able to differentiate which cat is bad also.

Like the other users have mentioned you can always get a parted out cat from someone. It'll be much cheaper! than Lexus or any other parts supplier that you can find that carries it.

Oh yeah I would recommend not bypassing your O2...hope this helps...

rfurious33

I had autozone do another diagnostic. It came up as P0430. Is that a bad cat also?

jhill20

iTrader: (1)

yes it is, it is the sister" code to the p0420. On a two cat vehicle, which the IS is, p0420 refers to the bank 1 cat and p0430 refers to the bank 2 cat.