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Catalytic Convertor


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Has anyone had to replace their catalytic convertor? Mine is shot and the dealer wants $1,100 to fix it. I have an extended warranty that doesn’t cover jack shit, so I can’t get it fixed because I don’t have that kind of money laying around. Should I only go with geniune subaru parts or can I get by with a high quality aftermarket part?

 

 

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Can you tell us what is the mileage, model and year of your car? Where do you live?

 

Some of the emissions components are covered by a long warranty period by law.

 

How do you know you need a new cat?

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Has anyone had to replace their catalytic convertor? Mine is shot and the dealer wants $1,100 to fix it. I have an extended warranty that doesn’t cover jack shit, so I can’t get it fixed because I don’t have that kind of money laying around. Should I only go with geniune subaru parts or can I get by with a high quality aftermarket part?

 

 

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For that much you can get an aftermarket exhaust (600), with a cat (200) and installed (300)

 

or you can go to a muffler shop so they can put in a $200 cat. you may need mechanic to put something in to prevent CELs though.

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For that much you can get an aftermarket exhaust (600), with a cat (200) and installed (300)

 

or you can go to a muffler shop so they can put in a $200 cat. you may need mechanic to put something in to prevent CELs though.

Most shops won't replace a cat in that fashion it is highly illegal.

 

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For that much you can get an aftermarket exhaust (600), with a cat (200) and installed (300)

 

 

 

or you can go to a muffler shop so they can put in a $200 cat. you may need mechanic to put something in to prevent CELs though.

 

 

 

I have extended warranties on the car that forbid the use of aftermarket parts on any part of the car other than wheels, headlights, bodywork, etc... Failure to obide results in me being out over $3,000 and no warranty.

 

 

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Can you tell us what is the mileage, model and year of your car? Where do you live?

 

Some of the emissions components are covered by a long warranty period by law.

 

How do you know you need a new cat?

 

 

 

I live in Virginia. My 2012 Legacy 2.5i Limited has a little over 101,000 miles. I know that it needs a new cat because that’s what the code read at 2 different places, including a Subaru Service Center. They tested the emissions to make sure and it failed. I’m also getting about 7mpg less than what I normally do.

 

 

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It’s funny, the man who worked on my car said I should get rid of it as soon as I can. He said that he sees more Subaru’s come in for work, normally little things - annoyances - than he does FCA products. Typically all over 60K miles. That is more than likely the route I will go. My TC is going too, which will cost around $5,000, or so I was told. Buying a new car just seems like the best route to go.

 

 

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I live in Virginia. My 2012 Legacy 2.5i Limited has a little over 101,000 miles. I know that it needs a new cat because that’s what the code read at 2 different places, including a Subaru Service Center. They tested the emissions to make sure and it failed. I’m also getting about 7mpg less than what I normally do.

 

5 years and 100k miles seem low for the catalytic converter to be bad already. The code for catalyst under threshold is often the rear O2 sensor needs replacement. Did someone diagnose it or go just by ECM codes?

 

It’s funny, the man who worked on my car said I should get rid of it as soon as I can. He said that he sees more Subaru’s come in for work, normally little things - annoyances - than he does FCA products. Typically all over 60K miles. That is more than likely the route I will go. My TC is going too, which will cost around $5,000, or so I was told. Buying a new car just seems like the best route to go.

 

The TC is covered for another car under Subaru's extended warranty for the CVT (1 year or 10 year/100k). It was announce last month so you have another 11 months or so.

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What trouble code(s) are you getting? If you unplug the battery to reset the ECU, how quickly does the code come back? I'm not sure how a non-reactive cat would affect mpg at all, but I wonder if a bad O2 sensor would. Catalytic converters need a rather narrow af ratio to function and not go bad, so even if your cat has gone bad, I would wonder if there was a more interesting reason for it.

 

Assuming you do need a new cat, I would suggest getting an OEM cat off of ebay and installing it, that sounds legal. It would be cheaper to get an after market direct fit part and have it installed with the OEM heat shields. It would be even cheaper to have just the old cat cut out and replaced with a universal one and have them try to fit the heat shields back on over it. IMO all these are pretty environmentally friendly. All of these would be more reasonably priced than going to the dealer.

 

It’s funny, the man who worked on my car said I should get rid of it as soon as I can. He said that he sees more Subaru’s come in for work, normally little things - annoyances - than he does FCA products.

 

I don't want to debate reliability, the statistics are out there if you want to look at facts vs hearsay. I will say that it is an interesting tactic to trash talk Subarus on a Subaru forum where you're asking for help.

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I live in Virginia. My 2012 Legacy 2.5i Limited has a little over 101,000 miles. I know that it needs a new cat because that’s what the code read at 2 different places, including a Subaru Service Center. They tested the emissions to make sure and it failed. I’m also getting about 7mpg less than what I normally do.

If your car is a PZEV vehicle, there should be a 15-year, 150,000 mile warranty on the emissions components.

 

Usually just throwing a code is not enough to say that a cat is faulty. The cat is just one of several possible causes for "catalyst efficiency below threshold". A bad cat normally does not affect gas mileage by 6 mpg, and it's unusual for cats to go out on cars with similar age or miles. Other possible causes are things like bad sensor, faulty wiring, exhaust leak. The technician should run through the diagnostic routine in the factory service manual to rule out the other possible causes before declaring the cat is bad.

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If your car is a PZEV vehicle, there should be a 15-year, 150,000 mile warranty on the emissions components.

 

Usually just throwing a code is not enough to say that a cat is faulty. The cat is just one of several possible causes for "catalyst efficiency below threshold". A bad cat normally does not affect gas mileage by 6 mpg, and it's unusual for cats to go out on cars with similar age or miles. Other possible causes are things like bad sensor, faulty wiring, exhaust leak. The technician should run through the diagnostic routine in the factory service manual to rule out the other possible causes before declaring the cat is bad.

 

 

 

The car is PZEV. I’ll be looking more into this. Thanks.

 

Edit: That warranty only applies in a select few states. Virginia is not one of them.

 

 

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Edited by LLimited12
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What trouble code(s) are you getting? If you unplug the battery to reset the ECU, how quickly does the code come back? I'm not sure how a non-reactive cat would affect mpg at all, but I wonder if a bad O2 sensor would. Catalytic converters need a rather narrow af ratio to function and not go bad, so even if your cat has gone bad, I would wonder if there was a more interesting reason for it.

 

 

 

Assuming you do need a new cat, I would suggest getting an OEM cat off of ebay and installing it, that sounds legal. It would be cheaper to get an after market direct fit part and have it installed with the OEM heat shields. It would be even cheaper to have just the old cat cut out and replaced with a universal one and have them try to fit the heat shields back on over it. IMO all these are pretty environmentally friendly. All of these would be more reasonably priced than going to the dealer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't want to debate reliability, the statistics are out there if you want to look at facts vs hearsay. I will say that it is an interesting tactic to trash talk Subarus on a Subaru forum where you're asking for help.

 

 

 

I haven’t tried resetting the codes on my own. I plan on going to Advance tomorrow to have the code reads again and cleared. The first time they did it, everything was fine for roughly 60 miles. When Subaru checked the codes, it didn’t reset them. (Or so I’m assuming.) There is also a leak in my gas cap. Again, I’m not sure if that would cause all of these codes.

 

 

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IIRC federal regulations require the oem cat as a replacement no other. This is why shops mostly won't replace a cat with a universal one.

 

Now if you take a car with no cat in they can put one in place no problem.

 

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I haven’t tried resetting the codes on my own. I plan on going to Advance tomorrow to have the code reads again and cleared. The first time they did it, everything was fine for roughly 60 miles. When Subaru checked the codes, it didn’t reset them. (Or so I’m assuming.)

 

I have had code 0420 on other cars. The reason it take some miles for the code to reappear is that ECM has to detect the condition for 3 times in row. In my case of my 3 cars, the rear O2 sensor was faulty in everyone of them. 2 of the cars were just over 100k, the other was 125k miles.

 

Someone needs to diagnose the issue. Advantage Auto parts isn't. Looking at the Subaru diagnostic table, most of the diagnosis is either data logging and looking at the rear O2 sensor wave form or using multimeter to check continuity and resistances.

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The car is PZEV. I’ll be looking more into this. Thanks.

 

Edit: That warranty only applies in a select few states. Virginia is not one of them.

 

 

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I believe the extended PZVEZ warranty on the catalytic converter is only extended in the states where PZEV is required.

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A family member had a 09 Outback 4 cyl with check engine light - the dealer told her that the CAT is bad, as well as both O2 sensors. She called me.

I had her ask the dealer "how do you know the CAT is bad, if you are confidant the O2 sensors are bad?". "and how do you know that BOTH O2 sensors are bad?"

Long story short, she had them reset the code and they didn't do any other work.

about 100 miles later, the check engine light came on again.

She brought it to a different dealer and they found (1)ONE O2 sensor bad and she had them replace it. That cleared up the entire problem....

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It’s funny, the man who worked on my car said I should get rid of it as soon as I can. He said that he sees more Subaru’s come in for work, normally little things - annoyances - than he does FCA products. Typically all over 60K miles...
He's not even trying to diagnose what is wrong and he has an axe to grind? Maybe it would be better to find someone else who is not lazy/boneheaded/ignorant/prejudiced/all of the above (circle the correct answer).

:spin:

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Most commonly, cats go bad by getting plugged up, either from burning a whole bunch of oil or running obscenely rich. If that were the case, the car would feel gutless and run like garbage, especially under higher load. If it runs okay, chances are pretty good that the code just means the O2 sensor is dead. If you have a multimeter and a set of probes (paperclips work well in a pinch), it'd take you about a minute to verify that you have good power and ground at the sensor and continuity across the heater element.
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