Do Catalytic Converters Wear Out?
08-26-2011, 09:32 AM
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Do Catalytic Converters Wear Out? Hey All,
I'm doing a lot of maintenance/mods under my Silverado right now and am trying to do as much as I can while it's off the road and I'm playing underneath it.
I'm replacing the Cat Back system with a Magnaflow dual out the back setup. The truck has almost 130,000 miles on it. Am I at the point where I need to think about replacing the Y-pipe and Cats - and, thus, look into doing headers too
- or do the stock Cats last more or less "forever" as long as they don't rust through.
Thanks!
Adam
I'm doing a lot of maintenance/mods under my Silverado right now and am trying to do as much as I can while it's off the road and I'm playing underneath it.
I'm replacing the Cat Back system with a Magnaflow dual out the back setup. The truck has almost 130,000 miles on it. Am I at the point where I need to think about replacing the Y-pipe and Cats - and, thus, look into doing headers too
- or do the stock Cats last more or less "forever" as long as they don't rust through.Thanks!
Adam
08-26-2011, 09:52 AM
#2
no they absolutely DO NOT last forever.. my car originally had a 3" ory, and the stearlership installed a 3" cat on my i pipe so I could purchase the car.. a few months later theres something LOOSE inside of it.. not even 10k miles later my cat is already deteriorating.
Not saying this is exactly going to happen to u, I just had a unfortunate situation that just coincidentally answers your question.
My advice, if they racked up miles on that cat.. like original 130k miles on the cat, and your redoing your exhaust, then it doesn't hurt to replace them, you can find high flows cheap on ebay and through our sponsors on ls1tech.
Idk if your area is strict on emissions or decibels, if not then just ditch them entirely
Not saying this is exactly going to happen to u, I just had a unfortunate situation that just coincidentally answers your question.
My advice, if they racked up miles on that cat.. like original 130k miles on the cat, and your redoing your exhaust, then it doesn't hurt to replace them, you can find high flows cheap on ebay and through our sponsors on ls1tech.
Idk if your area is strict on emissions or decibels, if not then just ditch them entirely
08-26-2011, 10:08 AM
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If you're going to do anything, I would not replace them - just remove them if you don't have a visual or sniff inspection.
08-26-2011, 10:18 AM
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Hadn't thought about ditching them entirely. I've been reading up on LS mods and know there are O2 sensors and before and after the Cats and there's some way to make the computer think they're still there.
They ARE the original Cats coming up on 130,000 miles now..
Of course, no header company will tell me how to do that on a street vehicle...
But, yeah, Connecticut only has a computer diagnostic test for emissions. No visual and no sniff test anymore that I know of...
Adam
They ARE the original Cats coming up on 130,000 miles now..
Of course, no header company will tell me how to do that on a street vehicle...
But, yeah, Connecticut only has a computer diagnostic test for emissions. No visual and no sniff test anymore that I know of...
Adam
Last edited by SilveradoOn35s; 08-26-2011 at 10:23 AM.
08-26-2011, 01:02 PM
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^ true however the car will still run the same. Cats can sometimes wear out earlier than others if the car is running rich. The unburnt fuel can eventually clog up the cats, so they live longer on a healthy/tuned engine.
08-26-2011, 01:27 PM
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Cats will last forever only if the car is always running perfect. If conditions are optimal they have a life expectency of the life of the car. I recycle converters have done so for the last ten years.
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08-26-2011, 02:03 PM
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- Custom tuning to delete the rear O2 sensors (keeps the SES light off)
- O2 simulators that will plug into the wiring harness in place of the rear O2s (keeps the SES light off)
Either one will work, and the result will be the same: You will pass an OBD scan test, but not a visual or sniff test. So if all you have is a scan test, then cats really aren't needed. If you're going to go to the trouble of installing headers for better performance, then there is little reason to spend more money for less gains by adding new cats (since you don't have a visual/sniff test).
08-26-2011, 03:39 PM
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Ceramic "brick" converters are less likely to "wear out"
than to be fouled or crack the brick. At least as long as
you don't entirely delete COT protection. Get a nice
layer of greasy soot in there and it is just a restrictor.
The metallic substrate cats like Jet-Hot, seem to be a
lot easier to burn through.
than to be fouled or crack the brick. At least as long as
you don't entirely delete COT protection. Get a nice
layer of greasy soot in there and it is just a restrictor.
The metallic substrate cats like Jet-Hot, seem to be a
lot easier to burn through.
08-26-2011, 09:59 PM
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Cats don't die, they are murdered. It is almost always an outside condition that leads to the failure of a catalytic converter. Misfires, bad o2's, exhaust leaks, head gasket leaks, burning oil, etc can all contaminate and lead to the premature failure of a cat converter.
