[V6-12v] Dead cat?

[The CyberPoet]

Dead catalytic converters are usually caused by bad/defective O2  
sensors which are telling the lambda sensor system to add too much  
fuel, which in turn causes the temp in the cats to rise until the  
substrate melts into slag.
When they melt, they can block up the passage, causing significant  
back-pressure which can cap the power availability (esp. RPM's)  
coming out of the engine.

Cheers,
=-= Marc


On Dec 10, 2006, at 12:02 AM, Tom Christiansen wrote:

> Folks,
>
> Sorry to bring this up for the 246th time, but I search the archives
> for the symptoms of a dead cat and didn't have much luck...
>
> I think one or both of my cats just died. Thankfully, I'm not talking
> about the fuzzy furball animals... The symptoms are as follows:
>
> About a week or so ago, it developed a new sound. Sounded a bit like
> one of those souped up rice rockets. OK, not that bad but in that
> direction anyway. It still drove fine and the sound was only present
> at 2800-3000 RPM so I decided to live with it.
> The cat's been rattling for years until it was warm. Tonight the
> rattle was gone. As was quite a bit of engine power. On a slight uphil
> stretch of the freeway I could barely maintain 65 MPH. This was with
> the pedal to the metal. Normally, I would have no trouble accelerating
> up that hill. When I got off the freeway I noticed that it was running
> a bit hotter than normal. Not much, just a bit. I also noticed that in
> first gear on a level road, the engine won't go past 5000 RPM or so.
>
> This got me thinking dead cat... Does this sound reasonable?
>
> If it's the cat, I'll probably just take the car to Midas. Yeah, the
> sweet audi purr (which I love) may be replaced by something else, but
> I just bought my first house so I don't really need huge expenses at
> this point...
>
> Is there something about swinging dead cats over your head brings luck
> or something...? :-)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
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