I have a 2006 lexus es 330 automatic, shortly after purchase i got a check engine light that indicated a problem with the caqt, i used scottys lacqur thinner and it worked for maybe a month but the light is back on. Can i try putting the thinner in again with out hurting anything? It is 1800 bucks to replace the 3 cats the car has.
Cats are expensive.
You probably need to replace them at this point.
Does your car's diagnostics pinpoint which converter is bad? Vehicles with more than one cat can have multiple O2 sensors to monitor them individually. Might not be necessary to replace all of them. For that matter sometimes the problem is a bad O2 sensor rather than a bad converter.
Just checked and even the aftermarket vehicle specific ones are not cheap, roughly $200 +/- each, and a lot of them are sold out.
I was listening to auto expert this past Saturday on an AM station. He spends his show talking about new models and such. But this time he spent part of his show talking about the rise in catalytic converter theft. He was saying even with cat protectors people still find a way to steal them.
That’s outrageous for 3 cats. You can try changing where you get gas. That could be a factor believe it or not. Im not familiar with the procedure your referring to so I will let Scotty answer that. Unless you live in an area that has emissions testing I would just deal with it or get universal cats for 50-100 each. Keep in mind muffler chain shops and dealerships charge outrageous anountsfor catalysts, and installation. Example a shop near me wants 800 bucks for the exact converter I can buy for 140. Shop around. Call around.
I would not recommend a universal converter if his car is still running the stock exhaust. He would likely have to modify the exhaust to fit the universal cats. Also, they are cheaper for a reason as they don't contain the same amount of precious metals as OEM cats do and do not perform as efficiently. Here's a quick link to go into a little more detail using the Toyota Prius as an example: https://www.torquenews.com/8113/should-i-replace-my-toyota-prius-catalytic-converter-original-or-aftermarket
Understand your point, that’s why they won’t pass in CA or NY, the Prius’s are a totally different beast, thats why they are targeted most by cat thieves. Where a normal OEM cat sells on the street for 200-300, the ones from a prius, thieves are getting over 1,000 for. Much more precious metals in them for some reason.