[A4] How much for a catalytic converter for my A4?

[Joyce Furono]

My car starting acting up recently where when I was shifting down a gear to
slow down, and then shifted back up to speed up, it would kick back, lose a
little power for a second, and then decide that it could give me power after
all and then speed back up again. The check engine light would blink for a
few seconds and then go off. Then after a couple of times of that, then the
check engine light would just stay on. He's saying it's clogged.

This didn't happen all the time. It mostly happened when I was taking a
particularly sharp turn at speed, or when I was trying to go up a hill in
the middle of traffic. Basically when I find myself needing a little more
power than if I were driving on flat, straight ground. So something is
definitely not working right.

As a little backstory, my husband got my car into a wreck that essentially
damaged the underside of my car so that it practically ripped the oil pan
off, or ripped a hole big enough that it lost all it's oil in a very fast
amount of time. So that resulted in us having to replace the transmission
and get a new oil pan. So my mechanic did that, gave my car a tune up it
probably desperately needed and sent me on my way. And it worked fine for
about two weeks.  I'm thinking it was either the accident that precipitated
the cat converter malfunction or my not having given the car a tune-up for a
year. Although all in all, I drove the car a total of 2,000 miles last year
as I started taking public transportation to work.

I ask about the oxygen sensor mainly because it's a relatively inexpensive
part (at least compared to the CC) and some car care sites recommend you
replace the oxygen sensor when you replace the cat converter.

Joyce

On Jan 23, 2008 5:16 AM, Peter Kirby <4pkirby at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why does he think the CC needs replacing?  Ditto re O2 sensor.  You
> may want a second opinion.
>
> Peter
> 2001 A4 1.8tq
>
> On Jan 23, 2008 2:17 AM, Joyce Furono <furonobono at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > My mechanic just informed me that I need a new catalytic converter for
> my
> > car. I have a 2001 A4 1.8T Quattro. I've been going to this mechanic for
> > years and have never felt that he was ripping me off. He quoted me $950
> for
> > the job. That seemed a little high to me since it looks like I can
> purchase
> > one for about $200-$300 online. (actually even cheaper than that). And
> it
> > doesn't seem as if it should take hours and hours to install the new
> one.
> > But I'm not sure.
>