CEL while my wife was driving (why is it ALWAYS when she is driving?) P430 and P420....catalyst low efficiency.

1- I am a little surprised both cats 'went bad' simultaneously. That sounds a little suspicious.

2- The market for cats, prefabricated Y-pipes, etc seems to change quarterly.

AB has a Y-pipe for $650 (after tax and shipping)..unspecified brand
Rock auto $520 (all in) Davico brand
Ebay Canadian $420 (AB Catalytic)

I doubt I could find single cats cheap enough which would need to be installed much cheaper than these items after all is said and done.


Anybody have any recent catalytic converter experience?

 

At my local muffler shop it was 200.00 per cat installed for Magnaflow universal units. I've seen several post about the lack of quality with the AB Catalytic stuff. Guy had to re-weld it, grind on it, and bend it to fit..

 

I swapped cats between my 94 and 96, then deleted the downstream sensors on the 96. Living with the CEL on the 96 in the mean time, scanning from time to time. Fuel trims are good, runs great. State of Washington eliminated inspections last year because cars are better than they used to be. I was tempted by cheap ebay canadian y-pipe cats, but my son warned there could be fit up issues.

Let us know how it goes.

 

My 97 D1 project has been throwing the same codes since the entire time I've had it. Clear the codes and they come back soon enough, it looks like both cats were replaced with universal magnaflow units in 2009 as well.

Ended up ordering the following unit from CalNorth parts in Canada. It's suspiciously cheap so we'll see how it goes, should arrive Monday according to FedEx.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/20269391176...53.m2749.l2649

 

Please let us know how the Cal north units work.

 

..Tag

 

Hey, would you be willing to sell sections of your old system? I just need the flange from the manifold to right before the catalytic. 100$shipped? 33157 then sell your old cats to a wrecker for more$$. Circled in red is what I am referring to.

 

It was delivered today and unfortunately it's an AB Catalytic unit, however, for the price ($350 shipped) it looks good enough. Not pretty but all the welds at least look solid, we'll see how it fits.

 

Finally had time to do the entire exhaust this weekend and for the price I think it's hard to beat the AB Catalytic unit. I found mine for around $350 shipped and would be hard pressed to get new cats welded on the OEM y-pipe for less.

Having said that, here are a few takeaways:

• One of the upstream 02 bungs had a welding booger blocking the sensor from inserting. A quick cleanup with the Dremel took care of that
• The welds won't win any beauty contests but everything seemed solid
• When it came to installing I ended up mounting the passenger side flange to the manifold first and starting the nuts by hand. Then I had to pull the driver side flange over about an inch for it to mate with the manifold studs, no big deal but should be noted.
• I replaced the cat-back with a Starla brand unit which mated up with the AB y-pipe perfectly.

 

Looks like calnorthautoparts just pulled that product which still reads 3 available. The part# is 0823-AF vs the still available 0823-AG @ $430.