What are the consequences of removing the catalytic converter from a car's exhaust system?
Your car is tuned to have a catalytic converter. If you remove it, your engines computer will not be used to the lack of backpressure and probably will run worse. You would have to get a time to fix this. But after that tune, you will probably see more torque/horsepower because there will be less backpressure. Catalytic converters also act as a sort of muffler, mainly blocking out rasp. It is not worth it if you are just going to remove the catalytic converter, but would be worth it if you were going to install a whole new intake system and exhaust system, which would give you major horsepower gains.
What problems go along with a bad catalytic converter?
A clogged catalytic convertor causes the symptoms of a loss of power when accelerating or going up a hill. This is an often overlooked cause of loss of power, can cause check engine fault codes and lights, and mechanics will often change a few parts unnecessarily , especially if it is only partially plugged. A couple ways I check for plugged cats when a low power complaint is a symptom, and other obvious basic maintenance items have been checked for service is to have someone hold the rpm at about 1800 to 2000 steady. Then check for a good push of exhaust with my hand from behind the tailpipe. A plugged or partially plugged cat typically leaves a hot sickly feeling exhaust flow from the tailpipe. Compare to a known good working car nearby, known to be performing properly and with the same amount of cylinders. That slow , hot sickly flow at 2000 rpm compared to the hard push blowing your hand away of a not clogged cat is a dead giveaway, and I have NEVER misdiagnosed a plugged cat , or made false diagnosis with this method. Another way is watching a vacuum gauge connected to the intake manifold. When revving up, if the exhaust is plugged the gauge reading will climb then begin to slowly drop as the exhaust pressure builds up. Further testing will be needed to verify which part of the exhaust is plugged. Diagnostic by codes is unreliable and until now I had not heard of it. A code p420 only refers to catalyst efficiency. And can be set by faulty o2 sensors. Removing the exhaust and testing for engine power returning to normal works. But the hot sickly flow has been most accurate with my experience, in several cases where shops had missed it, were stumped and called me to come check. They are always embarrassed for missing the simplicity, but need not, as cars and their complicated electronics and even age old problems can lead to loss of power without any immediately obvious cause.
Will a bad catalytic converter make my car cut off?
Will a bad catalytic converter make my car cut off?That entirely depends on what you mean by a “bad” cat.What can happen with a cat, especially if your engine is dumping unburned fuel into the exhaust, is that the fine ceramic honeycomb of the converter can burn or melt away, leaving crumbly dust and ceramic gravel behind.Here’s a bit I kept from my destroyed cats. The idiot previous owner had managed to completely destroy the cats on both sides of the car. Sadly, the car had four (!!) cats - a pre-cat and a main cat for each cylinder bank (V8, so each bank = 4 cylinders). When he found out how much replacing them would cost and that Mercedes didn’t make them any more, he sold the car… And I bought it. :-(But the story has a happy end, because I found a small company that rebuilds cats by carefully cutting them open along a seam and completely replacing the honeycomb with some sort of metal-based honeycomb which has a much higher melting point than the original, and for less than half the price of the original… And then they carefully weld it closed again, and from the outside it’s all original. And the cat performance is as it should be.So, back to your question: Yes, I’d say it’s possible. When your cats start to disintegrate, the gravel created by the disintegrating ceramics will tend to block the remaining microchannels (see the image above), which will cause exhaust pressure to back up until it interferes with the firing of the cylinders. I guess it could get so bad that the engine shuts off. In my case, it just caused the check engine light to light up because cylinders were misfiring as soon as I put my foot down hard.New cat honeycomb: Problem solved.
Can removing baffles in the exhaust pipes of a motorcycle cause engine damage?
The baffles are designed to create the proper amount of back pressure to ensure escaping gases do not allow ignited gases or flames to leave the combustion chamber, period. When this happens you have massive heat burning through the exhaust for no reason, increased piston temperatures, increased cylinder head temperature, increased cylinder head valve/valve guides, and seal temperatures, and a whole plethora of problems that will quickly start destroying your engine from the inside out.Chrome plating is there to make the exhaust look good, not to start turning red then black for no reason other than stupidity. Many bikers that have well over 100K of mileage on their vehicles still have a shiny even chrome exhaust on their original rides. And this added heat quickly destroys the exhaust studs and nuts in record time.The flip side of this stupid behavior is that you’ll also attract police as well. The noise level of your ride is under DOT/MOT regulations. Ride without a baffle and quickly see how fast your ride safety certificate will be cancelled, your ride impounded for inspection, you’re served with several fines, and maybe even find your license under investigation.I know of a student that illegally modified his 49cc scooter years ago. He heavily modified the engine, removed the speed governor, the exhaust baffle, and then replaced the brake lights with LEDs, before they were legal. He found himself beside a state trooper on the interstate one day and then got pulled over. He lost his license for 30 days and his ride impounded, both on the spot. During inspection they found his ride engine had been modified to almost 80cc while only 49cc was allowed. The speed governor was removed and now he was able to drive about 55mph max. The LED brake lights were illegal at that time. The removed baffle resulted in excessive noise pollution as well as allowing the exhaust to become dangerously hot. The side mirrors were also removed.He found his drivers license being investigated and lost his license for 1 year. In total he found himself with over $5K in fines alone, not to mention his legal representation costs. A really bright guy, this one.
If I took off the catalytic converter, will it make my fuel get better mileage?
Don't listen to the naysayers. A engine is a pump, anything you do to increase pump efficiency, is going to increase gas mileage. A new cat will not rais fuel consumption much, But if it has over 100,000 miles on it, You will see a marked increase or “restoration” of gas milage. This is especially true of cars with a secondary air pump. They are not exactly filtering the air, before its pumped into you exhaust.This is what gets fun. If you reprogram, or modify the O2 sensors signal to bring the engine to stylometric fuel ratio or just less, you will get a 5–10% increase in gas milage. This trick really shines in stop and go traffic. If you analyse the wave form of the upstream O2 sensors, you will notice it spends a lot more time rich, than lean. You are sitting at red lights feeding that Fat Cat, so it can make more smoke.All cars are set up to fuel that catalytic convert. This keeps them hot and working. Without extra fuel pumped thru the engine, that cat has nothing to do, cools down, and slowly plugs up. To bad your cat will plug up if you lean out the engine. Hint, Hint……….
What are the effects of driving a car with a misfiring cylinder?
OK. I am a gear head who loves working on cars and has done so since the 1960’s.If a cylinder is misfiring because of an ignition problem you will, in the short term, just experience a loss of power increase your fuel consumption. In the longer term, continuing to drive it that way could destroy a coil and cost you more money.If, however, the misfire is caused by an injector problem, you could seriously damage your engine. Running that cylinder too lean will cause it to overheat and potentially damage the valve or the piston. If it is running excessively rich the unburned fuel could be washing the lubrication off of the cylinder walls leading to severe wear. In either case, repairing the damage will be expensive.NEVER drive a car that has a problem. NEVER drive a car in which the Check Engine light is on. If the Check Engine light begins to flash, SHUT OFF THE ENGINE, NOW! A problem that to you seems small, if not repaired, can cause a lot of damage that will be very expensive to fix.Read your car’s manual. Do exactly what it recommends. Find a mechanic you trust. Doing preventive maintenance will cost you a lot less than repairing the damage caused by neglecting to keep your car serviced.
How long can I drive my car with bad coil packs?
It is not a question of how long you can do it. It is more a question if you should.The answer is you should not. You can drive the car until it breaks down completely (and it will). While doing so you will, as pointed out by other answers, run the risk of damaging the converter but you also run the risk of fire.If the coil is faulty very bad things can happen. Car fires are usually related to causes associated with fuel, and/or electrical. Once a fuel part starts leaking while a car is running, a fuel drip can be the formula for fire if you get sparks from a spark plug wire or an ignition coil that is faulty. Something like this could be the end result. (the image is from the web, I am just using it to illustrate a possible scenario, I do not know what happened with the beamer) But I have seen a Lancia catch fire from a faulty ignition coil.So, why risk it? Yes, they are not cheap, but you really should get a new one. By trying to "save" a few bucks you may end up having to spend a lot more.
Can a low gas tank when filled cause the engine light to come on?
yes. on some cars, refilling with the engine on (yes, people do that) is enough to set off an EVAP leak DTC which turns the check engine light on, because your fuel cap is off and engine is running. not tightening the cap after will cause the same light.tightening the cap will not shut the light off, you could either disconnect the battery for a second to a full minute; depending on the car, have it shut off using a scanner at a repair shop or dealership or allowing it time to shut off by itself which could take between 3 days to one month.(10 drive cycles or so, too much to explain, you can look it up if your really that interested)nothing bad will happen if that is the cause of the light and you decide to just leave it until it shuts off by itself.