Recently my car's check engine light came on and the engine abruptly started skipping. At first, I was convinced the source of the problem was failing ignition coils due to the symptoms. After having it scanned by a code reader, p0430 came up however. Of course this is the catalytic converter bank 2 performance below threshold. I caught Scotty Kilmer youtube video suggesting the use of Lacquer thinner to fix the problem. He said to insert 1 gallon of pure Lacquer thinner with a half a tank of gas, and drive 150- 200 miles could fix the problem. I went ahead and did that yesterday. It really helped a lot. The car has greater take off, more power and the motor doesn't skip as much. But the check engine light is still on and the motor does still occasionally skip. My local mechanics quoted me $320 parts and labor to install a brand new universal catalytic converter. The car right now does run very well for the most part, it will just skip and shake every once in a while. Does anyone know if it's safe to continue driving the car as is, or could I do more damage to it by not having it repaired right away? Also, are there cheaper alternatives to fixing it? Would running Lacquer thinner through it again help more, or would I be wasting my money? Is anyone else familiar with this problem? What's the best way to deal with it?

 

How many miles on the car? Cat element might have broken loose and clogged.

You can check by removing the upstream O2 sensor to see if it stops "skipping." Luckily, Bank 2 is the front bank, so the O2 sensor is right in front of your face when you pop the hood. If everything smooths out, you have a clogged cat. Be warned, this will be very loud as you are basically intentionally creating an exhaust leak, so yeah. Don't let the O2 sensor hang - if it bangs around it'll crack the ceramic, it's fragile.