cnd99hawk

iTrader: (2)

Hey guys,

I'm from the KW area and am trying to pass my e-test. I have a 99 T/A firehawk with the A4. The car has 32000 original Km's on it. My engine is stock except for SLP LT headers, slp cats, slp y pipe, lower temp thermostat, and SLP intake box, all done before I purchased the car. The previous owner said that it passed it's e-test with flying colours a couple of years ago.

I am running code P0420 - Catalytic Converter low efficiency (bank 1.) I have a scanner and clear the code. I don't know what could be causing this code and don't know where to start? Should I buy new cats or look at O2 sensors? I obviously don't want to fix things that don't need replacing. Should I buy Magnaflows (p/n 59959) cats and get a stock thermostat, then attempt a re-test?

I passed the idle test well decent numbers, but failed the driving part.
HC ppm - Limit 58 / 142 reading FAIL
CO% 0.32 limit / 0.45 reading FAIL
NO ppm 435 limit / 710 reading FAIL
902 RPM
14.6 Dilution

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I just want to be able to drive the car..

Pomp

If you have old fuel in there burn it off and put fresh in. You will need a new cat on drivers side and changing the thermostat I don't think will help. I had this code on another car and changed cats and passed.

cnd99hawk

iTrader: (2)

Well there may be some old fuel still left. I added approx half a tank of new gas with 1/4 of old fuel in the tank.

What type of cats do people recommend to pass emissions? I would even get a low performance universal set just for emissions if need be. Do you think if I get a new SLP cat to match the passenger side, will I have issues passing or should I get a pair from another company that will give me a great chance for passing the test.

I have read that if you lower your coolant temp your HC goes up and mine is high. Based on that I figured that I might as well try the stock thermostat.

Pomp

Burn all the old fuel out of there and maybe wait a few tanks before you do it again. I would try it with the new fuel first and make sure the cats are hot with a spirited 20 minute drive before you etest. If you pass great and if you fail it only cost you $17.50. I used Magnaflow cats and passed with them.

cnd99hawk

iTrader: (2)

Thank you

wes8398

iTrader: (2)

I had this problem for 4 years straight with my 97 Mustang. It would throw codes, but only once in a blue moon (usually O2 sensor codes).
My suggestion - pay the $120 for the shop's diagnostics testing ... that'll give you a really good idea of what you need to do to pass the test. I did that a few months ago and they found that one of my upstream O2's was no good and that one catalytic converter was running at about 8% efficiency, and the other was actually saturated with fuel and was causing the air LEAVING the cat to have higher emissions readings than the air ENTERING the cat (yikes!). I replaced the O2 for $30 (Rockauto.com) and then found a KILLER deal on Magnaflow "spun" metallic-core'd catalytic converters on Performancepeddler.com for $63 each. Once I got those, I had 'em installed and re-tested the car. It passed with FLYING colours. Then I sold it, which is what brough me here. I'm now the happy new owner of a 2006 CTS-V.

So ... either listen to your code reader and replace the cats (I suggest performance peddler .com if you want a great price) and have it retested, or have that diagnostics done and go from there.

eb02z06

iTrader: (18)

Was the car ever tuned?

KENS WS6

get a conditional pass, thats what i do all the time and then you don't have to worry about anything you do to your car.

C Man

If the code continues to pop up... replace the cat. If it doesn't... then re-test it with good gas.

Go out and run the car hard right before you go... get the cats nice and hot.

Aftermarket cats are not that expensive... and they don't need to be the same on each side to work so just replace one.

I passed with some small bullet type high performance ones... they make cats pretty well these days.

cnd99hawk

iTrader: (2)

Sorry for taking a long time to reply, I have been busy at work and around the house.

I have good news!

I ran the car with expired plates when I took it out of storage for about a week. I took it for good spirited runs everyday and burned the old/stale gas in the tank. After it was nearly empty, I put in a full new tank of gas and ran it hard on the highway before the test. I brought it to the shop and this time instead of bombing the entire drive test, it only failed the NO ppm by 25 or so. I got them to do their diagnostic test and they said everything was "OK", but they needed to run some cleaner through the top end of the engine? I was so excited that I passed for a reasonable bill, that I never thought to ask what this cleaner was, or why it has required.

WES8398, thx for the tips and suggestion for parts, I will keep them in mind for the future.

eb02z06@ChampionMotors - The car was tuned by the previous owner, or at least I think it was because one of his receipts was from a speed shop in the GTA and it said it received the LS1 tune?

All others, thank you!

01 Bad Mutha F*****

How do you get a conditional pass?

wes8398

iTrader: (2)

Someone who lives in Ontario and doesn't know about a "conditional pass"?? I guess you're a lucky man!!
There's a $400 spending limit on getting your car to pass after it's failed. Once you go over that $400, you get a conditional pass for one year. The shops will all nickle and dime you to get as close to $400 as they can without putting you over, so you have to spend that money, then the next repair that puts you over doesn't have to be done and you get your conditional.