2002 SS with 15,000 miles, LS1, automatic, new purchase. Car has sat for about 6 months and has only been driven 1,000 miles in a year or two. OBD II reader error code is PO 430, Catalist code 02 sensor. Cleared code then put fuel treatment in tank and drove 80 miles up and back on expressway at 70 MPH. After about 100 miles total check light came on again. Some say replace a 02 Sensor, some say replace catalytic converter, ??? Ideas?? opinions?? I do not need the converter for emissions , any problems with removing the converter? Will all computer systems work correctly with out the converter?? If removed will I still need to replace a 02 Sensor?

 

I think you'll still need the sensor but you can get rid of the cats and everything can work,
I'm not sure if a tune has to be involved or not.
I had a lot of work done on mine including LS6 heads a cam and long tube headers with a ORY (off road y-pipe - no cats) among other things and I have no engine light issues but I had it all done with a tune at a local LS guru's shop.

 

Replace sensor. Nice feature of OBD II is after 50 starts, if problem is gone, system resets itself.

 

This Camaro has the SS special exhaust, the y pipe goes into one pipe to the muffler then comes out as two. Does it have one or two catalytic converters? I can see one on the right side of the firewall.

 

PO 430 is bank two sensor. I believe your car has 2 cat. Go to the manual section and get the manuals. I could be your down stream O2 or your upstream O2 or your Cat.

Note: the Cats are known to failing early, GM replaced a lot of them under warranty back in the day.

The way the system work is the Upstream sensor has a reading then the exhaust goes thru the cat to be "cleaned" then the down stream sensor should read less O2. If they read near the same then the code sets. So either sensor reading wrong or the cat not cleaning can set the code. Not to mention and bad wire or connection.

 

That's the way they all are, some SS cars have the CME (center mount exhaust) but they all have a y-pipe that goes to single pipe before the muffler and back out as two tail pipes. There should be 2 cats going into the y-pipe.

 

PO430 means the system is reading catalyst performance below threshold. The post-cat (downstream) O2 sensor is the one that monitors the cat's performance. At 15k miles, it's more likely the O2 sensor is faulty as opposed to the cat having gone south.

 

Thanks for all the information. Latest update: I installed some fuel conditioner and replaced the fuel filter and drove it about 150 miles or so over about a week and the light went out. Now after about another 200 miles the light has stayed off and it passed the Georgia Emission test. I guess it had some bad gas after sitting about 6 months and that caused the code for needing a sensor or cat. Two shops said I needed a sensor and the Chevy dealer said I needed the right cat.
Thanks again.