4 times now......seriously?

[-Alero-]

welp driving my incredible car known as the alero when that wonderfull little light called the SES light comes back on, for the 4th time for the same thing 4 times in a row.......

P0420.........- awesome "Lower catalyst efficiency below threshold"

im on my 4th cat, and have had 2 brand new O2 sensors recently installed the last time.

3 cats were magnaflow highflow, not exactly cheap.... 4th one was free replacement and seems to be a catco cat.

i have no idea what in the name of fuck keeps causing this over and over and over and over, i dont understand i take such good care of it, and it fucks me over like this.....

list of issues right now p/s dying, rough idle in drive and now this :banghead: :banghead: i have no idea how to satisfy this motor.....sigh

[-Alero-]

i think seafoam and DHP PCM 1.0 are the culprits

[jabartram]

i had the same issue with my highflow cat and exhaust, you can either get a o2 simulator or disable the programming for the downstream o2.

[-Alero-]

fucking A........sigh welp i guess if jon cant help me, then i guess ill have to fork out 600 on the powertuner

[Redog]

Did you ever try a cat cleaning?

They did that to my wife's Altima. You think our cat's are expensive. OEM Nissan cat's are close to $1,000 :eek:

Look it up, I know you unplug one spark plug wire and rev to 2500 RPM's for about 2 to 5 minutes. Don't know if it's a certain plug or not, or if they can do it with GM cars/trucks

[-Alero-]

Did you ever try a cat cleaning?

They did that to my wife's Altima. You think our cat's are expensive. OEM Nissan cat's are close to $1,000 :eek:

Look it up, I know you unplug one spark plug wire and rev to 2500 RPM's for about 2 to 5 minutes. Don't know if it's a certain plug or not, or if they can do it with GM cars/trucks



hmm well no offense but your wifes car is a inline DOHC motor, im sure it reacts very differently than the pushrod slant six. i dont even recall my car being able to maintain an idle long enough without bringing a tear to my eye because it was in pain....

but thinking about it now im leaning towards seafoam doing this.... and if i have to ill replace the cat and never run seafoam again, or i can remove the cat and have it removed from the computer...


god its times like this i really wish i had a second hand motor to work on

[alerored04]

Redog how would that clean the cat? Sounds like unburnt fuel from a plug not working would clog the shit out of the cat. Alero did you run a large amount into it at once? I can see that happening if there was enough in there that it did not burn completely and clogged it up. Jon should be able to disable codes for you if you can meet up. Otherwise I would go with an 02 sim.

[[ion] C2]

fucking A........sigh welp i guess if jon cant help me, then i guess ill have to fork out 600 on the powertuner

If it's just the high flow code and there's nothing wrong with your cat who gives a shit. It's a light. You can turn it off using HPTuners (IMO, far superior to PowrTuner, the interface, the 3D graphs, it's far cleaner all in all).

Also, Redog's method is how you KILL a cat and gut it, not how to clean it lol. That causes catastrophic cat fragmentation being very loud, very smokey.

[-Alero-]

i have an o2 simulator and with that bitch in it gives me "bank 1 too lean" half a week later

but yes to be honest i really think it suck in alot at once... :(

[-Alero-]

C2;385686']If it's just the high flow code and there's nothing wrong with your cat who gives a shit. It's a light. You can turn it off using HPTuners (IMO, far superior to PowrTuner, the interface, the 3D graphs, it's far cleaner all in all).




er sorry powertuner/hptuner i dont know the difference cause ive never used any of them

[[ion] C2]

DHP PowrTuner screenshot. (http://65.109.52.43/ptEditTable.jpg)

HPTuners screenshot. (http://www.hptuners.com/products/vcmsuite/ssl_vcmeditorgfx.jpg)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRw1ap6q6us
(How to kill a cat: Use Seafoam)

[Redog]

No offesnse taken, personally I don't think it's a good idea anyway. I know that's what the dealer did to her car.

Maybe if the car is done right the first time, this wouldn't be a problem ;)

[-Alero-]

are you saying my exhaust wasnt done right i dont get it

[surreal_awakening]

or i can remove the cat and have it removed from the computer...

Don't do this now that you're in Maryland. Maryland has some fairly strict emissions laws. The will do a visual inspection to verify that your cat is in place when you have your emissions test done. Also, the way they will do the emissions test is to plug in to the OBDII test port and just pull readings, so you'll definitely want to get to the bottom of it before you come due for emissions.

[-Alero-]

if only i could get to the bottom of it...im gonna try to take it to the dealership on wednesday hopefully they will take it in sigh

[Redog]

are you saying my exhaust wasnt done right i dont get it

Yes.

You say you put on a high flow cat, that's the first problem ;)

[jabartram]

Yes.

You say you put on a high flow cat, that's the first problem ;)


huh? this confuses me? please explain?

[-Alero-]

i dont think a high flow cat would of hurt it....of course i understand its probably not nessecary but i dont see how the high flow would hurt it

[jackal2000]

C2;385692']DHP PowrTuner screenshot. (http://65.109.52.43/ptEditTable.jpg)

HPTuners screenshot. (http://www.hptuners.com/products/vcmsuite/ssl_vcmeditorgfx.jpg)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRw1ap6q6us
(How to kill a cat: Use Seafoam)

how are you gonna post a PT 1.0 screen shot when no one who owns one uses that version?? rofl

[[ion] C2]

It's the first and main website Googled for PowrTuner, I can only post what's out there. Besides, PowrTuner's discontinued.

i dont think a high flow cat would of hurt it....of course i understand its probably not nessecary but i dont see how the high flow would hurt it
Wouldn't. It's just a code. You have an O2 simulator so whatever SES related to the cat isn't going to give you much information since you're already giving the VCM fake info. So if it doesn't correspond to what the cat's actually doing it's useless information. It's a light.

[Cliff8928]

Are you sure the suspected faulty converters are "OBD II Certified" ? I know I made sure the one I picked up for C2's car was..

[Redog]

The high flow cats or ANYTHING that isn't GM will bring on the SES light for a 420 code.

The only 2 fixes are, the stock GM cat, or a O2 sim. O2 sims are around $50 and althought a bit tight to get your hand up there with the car on the ground it can be done.

Unplug the O2 sensor, cut the wire tie though the plug hook first, plug in the O2 sim.

On the ground it had the be done by feel. Go up from the driver's side of the car and be sure the car's exhaust is cold. You'll be right up on the pipe.

On a lift, 5 mintues, on the ground about 45 but I was a noob when I did it. Be careful your hand doesn't get stuck between the engine and firewall.

[Beholder88]

This is rather easy, cut off your cat, cut it open, romove the guts. Weld in a straight pipe, and get your PCM flashed with a downstream O2 sensor delete. No more codes, still pass inspection, and you're good to go. I've done it before and it's worth the little extra time.

[rowdygls]

Are you running headers ?

[AlexSchu02AleroV6]

Bam! Thats your problem its the high-flow cat... our damn 3400 engines are REALLY picky about their equipment. You need an OEM Cat because we have this stupid ODBII system with the 2 oxygen sensors

[NickAlero2000]

^lol, good summary :lol: :p ^
I'd go with the HP Tuners with the delete, ultimately cheaper and u can still run the highflow Cat.

[-Alero-]

sigh god damn it people

first i had straight pipe, 420 code comes up, finally get a magnaflow high flow cat had for over a year no problem

second the 420 code comes back, got another magnaflow

third the 420 code comes back, decide to go with a Catco cat not rated as a high flow

fourth the 420 code comes back infared temp scan the cat, replaced it with another catco

now then, light is on again, i could of sworn i already said this but I HAVE HAD A O2 SIMULATOR BEFORE AND EVREYTIME I PLUG IT IN I GET "BANK 1 TOO LEAN"

so i refuse to use it, no im not going with a OEM cat from the stealership for god knows what outrageous amount of money, there are countless people on this board who have a cat no where near a OEM spec/rate

im blaming seafoam, every bit of the way im blaming seafoam, it all makes sense now all those months where the car was fine and then i sea foam it and like a week or 2 later hello SES light......never using seafoam again i gaurentee its seafoam

[jackal2000]

maybe it was seafoam that caused it?

[-Alero-]

maybe it was seafoam that caused it?


:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[jackal2000]

well maybe i can make it all better for you lol pm you in a minute...

[Redog]

Yeah I said something, but now, nevermind

[-Alero-]

oh jeez

[[ion] C2]

I said it already but... it's just a light. If it's not affecting performance, who cares?

[Midgear]

I cant even count how many cans of seafoam ive stuffed through my throttle body.. ive never had an SES light before- lol

[01OldsAleroGt]

actually.. when i punched out my car.. on the outside.. it looked like it was heating up.. i did have a 420 code.. but when i pulled all the crap outta the cat.. it didn't really look like it was clogged.. but who knows....i am gonna go and try the magnaflow OBD II high flow

[-Alero-]

C2;386703']I said it already but... it's just a light. If it's not affecting performance, who cares?


well personal prefernce i mean i dont like driving around with any idiot lights, and i mean if you have a current SES light on and then something else goes wrong by chance, its just gonna flash and beep, and i guess if you love seeing that SES light on you can be like "cool please stay there"

[Redog]

^^ ummmmm OK :blink:

I would only want the light to go away due to the inspection factor, automatic fail

[-Alero-]

personally i wouldnt want the light on period, ever to be honest...

but i mean if you have a problem with your car and want to get by in life by periodically hiding your SES light i mean go for it...

[[ion] C2]

HPTuners, disable the kitty code. It's a phenominal program..