Scotty! I picked up a sweet 3rd gen 4runner, 1999, last year with 125K km's.. recently discovered in tuning up that there's an aftermarket cat on the truck, and it seems to be contributing to some sluggishness as well as a bad front o2 sensor.
I've bought new sensors and a TPS but mechanic saying best to replace the cat too as it looks shot (despite no code).
Question is should I just choose a decent aftermarket cat or take the plunge and invest in OEM one, it's rather pricey like $1500-2000.
Thanks!
If you do need a catalytic converter the OEM ones are too expensive. When going aftermarket you don't want a universal one, you want a direct fit one. The best ones are Walker and Bosal.
First make sure that you need to replace the catalytic converter. You have a very low mileage on the truck (125000 km) and the cat should not be gone bad yet. If you find out that you need a cat, before replacing it, find out what the truck problem is and fix it. After that, I would advise to put a OEM cat if you want to keep the truck.
Many things can cause the car to be sluggish. Clogged fuel filter, fuel pump, bad plugs, injectors, dirty air filter, dirty MAF sensor, o2 sensors, crank and cam position sensors and any other sensors associated with the efi system. And some combination of these is causing premature cat failure if that's the case.
So that makes 2 cats within 125km? (the original and the aftermarket one). They should not be going bad that rapidly. You don't want to just throw parts at it in hopes of fixing it, can get expensive real quick. Get the 4runner diagnosed correctly and replace and/or clean only the parts that need it.
