'95 A6 - Catalytic converter UPDATE

[Fay Kelley]

>Fay, long time since we've talked.

Hi Tony !

>This is tony from Vegas, now living
>in Oklahoma again.
>
>I'm a tech at a local independant shop, so I'll give my .02 as well.
>We see a lot of the VAG (Volkswagen Auto Group) cars with the bad cat
>codes. There are two things you can do to fix it correctly, and a
>couple of things (both mentioned) you can do in the interim.
>
>However, the first question I have is, what causes you to think the
>cat is bad, aside from the dealer telling you so? Is it codes pulled
>from a check engine light, a loss of power, or something else that
>makes you think it's bad?


Bad gas mileage ... heat inside from below in summer ... engine slightly over heating ...
loss of power progressively over recent time .... little  power going up hills.
Could smell gas as running rich.

When I came back from Phoenix could only go 45 uphill, this week
only 30.

Hubby drilled a hole in front of both cats and that considerably improved
the gas mileage -
so it is not running so rich now.  Don't smell gas now either.

I called the shop foreman and asked him why it was running rich
and he said the plugged cat, otherwise it checked out okay.

I have routinely had the engine checked and asked them to do
a tuneup .... they change my oil sometimes ... so they do do small
jobs ... and they said it didn't need tuning 6 months ago.
but still over heating a little .... just barely shows increase in engine
heat when driving slower, now returns to normal on cold day on highway.

I also have one of the fans starting to go.... I replaced the other
fan last summer.

F.