[s-cars] Cat light on the dashboard is on and the engine doesn't run prope rly

[Ingo D. Rautenberg]

Yes, Russ.  I misspoke.  Overly lean mixture can destroy your pistons and
scorch exhaust valves (especially in turbo-applications), whereas overly
rich mixture is bad for catalytic converters.

Ingo

----- Original Message -----
From: "Russ Panneton" <russ at s-cars.org>
To: "Ingo D. Rautenberg" <ingo at waratap.com>
Cc: "Frederic L'Huillier" <flhuillier at siebel.com>; <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Cat light on the dashboard is on and the engine
doesn't run prope rly


> On Mon, 13 May 2002 13:18:49 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >Frederic,
> >
> >That does not sound good at all.  Cat light only comes on when the cats
are
> >overheating, presumably from an overly lean mixture.  If you're lucky,
only
> >a faulty sensor is to blame, but I believe that if an oxygen sensor goes
bad
> >you would be more apt to have an overly rich mixture.  Check your
catalysts.
> >They may well be plugged up --worst case is you got those catalysts so
hot
> >they melted.  In either of these instances they would need to be
replaced.
> >
>
> I believe it's a rich mixture that overheats the cats -- too much air with
> little to burn doesn't generate any heat.  A melted cat can probably plug
the
> exhaust pretty well...
>
> Russ
> --
> Russ Panneton                          russ at s-cars.org
> Nederland, CO              "Too bad ignorance isn't painful"
>


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