My check engine light just recently came on..... and my car has been cutting back some power at higher rpm's. Well I finally went to autozone and got it checked out. Come to find out it was cat inefficiency.Well I was wandering if this was part of my problem of my car running slugishly....and what could I do to fix this problem....

 

Change the cat, it is probably clogged.

 

well could i just take off the cat and run a straight pipe? Ive heard so many different things about it. Mostly that the car will run like crap if I take it off and just put a peice of pipe there....Or could I take it off and just gut out the contents of the cat and throw it back on? I was quoted $135 (thats with cat and labor) from the guy I got to do my flowmasters.

 

If you remove the cat and put in a straight pipe the computer will set a code complaining that the cat is not working right, and put the engine in limp mode. You can avoid the problem if youreplace the downstream O2 sensors with O2 simulators and the computer will be tricked into thinking the cat is working OK. If you need emission testing, the car may or may not pass depending on how sharp the inspector is.

 

in SC we have no emission testing. Or any car inspection for that matter the only thing they care about is headlights windsheild and taillights....if you have all the above you can register it and drive it in SC....(lol I <3 my state)

But anyway....I was wandering if my car would run any differnt as far as me just takeing off the cat and just putting on a staight pipe....Ive heard that it would make my car run like crap then ive had buddies takem off and run great. I just dont wana **** up nothing and end up paying for something I didnt need to. ( I could really careless about the check engine light.)

 

I cut the Cat out of my 3.4, and have gotten no check engine light or anything, it's been out for around 8-9 months now...only thing I've got is a Low Oil light...I've either got a bad connection or a bad sensor on that end though...gonna tinker with it when I change the fuel filter within the next few days.

 

Thecar REDNECK97 drivesis OBDII and uses upstream and downstream O2 sensors and will complain if the cat is removed. Your car is OBDI and does not care what you do with the cat.

As I said in the previous post, you can remove the cat in the 97 cars but the downstream O2 sensors have to be replaced with O2 simulators, to prevent setting off trouble codes and the car running funny.

 

so were can i pick up O2 sim's ? autozone? or what lol. thanks a bunch for the info btw