In The Shop
The cat's Out of The Bag...
…The catalytic converter that is. Many of you may have heard the term recently, as there was a news article about a thief being crushed to death by a Prius that we was attempting to steal one of these parts from- (seriously here’s the article) Some of you have a passing familiarity with these parts of your exhaust system but just in case let us explain it a little more clearly.
What is a Catalytic Converter?
A catalytic converter is a component in your exhaust system that is often barrel shaped, or a flattened oval and slightly larger in diameter than your exhaust tubing itself. Inside, you will find a series of honeycomb structures of ceramic coated with various precious metals, including palladium, rhodium, and platinum. These precious metals are scarce and are in high demand, which is why thieves will target stealing yours.
What Does A Catalytic Converter Do?
“Catalytic converters can overheat when excessive amounts of unburned gas come through the exhaust because of a misfiring spark plug, leaky exhaust valve, or other fuel-system problem.
A failed oxygen sensor can also cause overheating to happen. Oxygen sensors monitor the amount of oxygen in the exhaust and tell the engine computer how to adjust the air-fuel mixture. When an oxygen sensor stops sending signals, the computer gets confused and the air-fuel mixture may become too “rich,” meaning it has too much gas.”
Above is a photo of almost completely clogged cat that we removed from a customer’s car. This car was throwing underboost codes, however otherwise driving fine, albeit noticeably down on power. Once we removed it and replaced it with a more free-flowing component there was a night and day increase in performance and driveability.
Above is a good, brand new catalytic converter that is more high flowing. As you can see in the photos all of the cells are open and none have been melted together as in the first photo.
What's The Takeaway?
You may have never been aware that this component existed on your vehicle, but you now know that it’s an important and critical piece of the puzzle. It’s important to keep up with all of your basic maintenance to prevent this expensive part from degrading. A bad cat will not only impede performance severely, but also noticeably degrade your vehicle’s fuel mileage. Once it has failed an OEM replacement is very costly and there is no fixing your original part.
As a lower cost, and higher performance option we do offer aftermarket downpipes from several different vendors, such as Integrated Engineering, Unitronic, CTS Turbo and many others. These are very popular upgrades that safely unlock more of your engine’s performance (and fuel economy)
Contact us today to see if your vehicle is suffering from this issue, and for us to give you a quote on how we can free up some extra horsepower and fuel economy!
919-635-6355 service@blackforesttechnik.com