possible bad cat? SS IS FIXED! - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

jimmyboy8301 · 08-30-2005, 06:15 PM

I was driving my car today and the change oil light came on. I had just changed the oil about 3 weeks ago so i thought nothing of it especially that it went right out. I got to my destination about 5 more miles down the road and the car started to idle extremely rough, after a few minutes it stopped. I pulled out and started to drive home and the whole car was shaking terribly as if i had a flat tire. I checked and of course i did not have a flat. I pulled over and popped my hood and the whole motor was rocking back and forth as if there was an imaginary person jarring it back and forth. I check the exhaust and there was almost no exhaust coming out it was just sloooooooowly coming out. I tried to continue on my ride home and the car had almost no power whatsoever and i started to get a little bit of a rotten egg smell. BTW the SES light also came on. The car had 2 or 3 cats replaced before i bought it. Does it sound like this cat is shot or clogged and that i may need a new one? In this case would i be better just getting a hi-flow, and if so how much does a cat or a hi-flow cat cost, as i am having trouble finding prices.

Oh yea i wound up having the car towed home.

79CamaroDiva · 08-30-2005, 06:27 PM

I dunno how the computer in a 4th gen would react to it, but couldnt you just hollow the damn thing out? Won't pass inspection, but if ya know someone, that doesnt matter

jimmyboy8301 · 08-30-2005, 06:29 PM

i could get that done and the shop i go to would pass it, but i don't really want to do that. If it is the cat i'll just put a hi-flow in.

NJSPEEDER · 08-30-2005, 07:07 PM

don't waste money on "high flow" cats. they don't flow much better, if at all, than a stock replacement. if you wanna pick up some flow replace your cats with bullet mufflers. you get all teh flow and pick up some volume/exhuast note.

later
tim

jimmyboy8301 · 08-30-2005, 08:27 PM

just did a general scan on the car and the P0300 code for engine missfire came up. It didn't say why or anything more than that. So tomorrow i'll take it and see what the shop says.

foff667 · 08-31-2005, 08:29 AM

plugs & wires...otherwise you might have some major issues

9secfirebird · 08-31-2005, 12:00 PM

why dont you drop the exhaust at the cats and see if it runs any different. or you can take temperature readings before and after the cats to determine if thats the cause

jimmyboy8301 · 08-31-2005, 12:53 PM

got the car scanned today. they said cylinder 2 is misfiring so bad it's almost inoperable, and the rest of the cylinders are misfiring occassionally. I'll start with plugs and wires, if that doesn't fix it i'll go to coils, hopefully i don't need to go to valves. The car doesn't smoke at all so hopefully i don't need valves. What do you guys/girls think is the most likely cause?

foff667 · 08-31-2005, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 9secfirebird

why dont you drop the exhaust at the cats and see if it runs any different. or you can take temperature readings before and after the cats to determine if thats the cause

to add to that...i would take out the front 02's & see if it runs differently...on my 98 when i was doing my headers 5 of the 6 studs snapped off while trying to remove the parts your referring to...I dont think he'd like to deal with that as well...especially considering undoing the front o2 will just throw it into open loop but will do pretty much the same thing.

Batman · 09-01-2005, 05:47 AM

Odds of an undamaged coil pack going bad are slim, check the plug wires, plugs and O2 sensors.

jimmyboy8301 · 09-01-2005, 01:08 PM

checked the plugs and wires. the plug for cyl 2 the one that was the most problamatic was dry, so i'm guessing it's not the valves. The seat of the plug had dropped a little and the wire looked coroded. We pulled the seat of the plug up and cleaned the ends of the wire as best we could. Put it back in and the car ran much better for about 2 minutes untill i got it back on the road then it started acting up again. So i'm guessing i need new plugs and wires. Sound about right?

jimmyboy8301 · 09-01-2005, 01:10 PM

also did a pressure check on cyl 2 and it was fine.

Batman · 09-02-2005, 09:15 PM

Start with plugs and wires and work from there

jimmyboy8301 · 09-04-2005, 10:00 PM

just bought NGK uridium plugs and MSD spark plug wires will be putting them wednesday-thursday of this week.

jimmyboy8301 · 09-12-2005, 09:07 PM

had the car checked today, turns out a wire was loose and the car was running rich. but so far so good and............

THE SS LIVES!!!!!!!!!!