Hey There Scotty, I thought I would give this a try. I just bought a 2009 Nissan Altima sedan 2.5 SL, with 204,874 miles on it & A CVT Automatic Transmission for $1,500 from a buddy. Cosmetically the car doesn’t look half bad ,however The catalytic converter inside of it is completely clogged up making the car extremely unsafe to drive. Here are my symptoms:
- car won’t go over 30mph w/ random dangerously slow accelerations
- rpm’s consistently fluctuating regardless of gas pedal position ( expect idle) and only get worse when you press it further.
- entire vehicle jerks randomly
- smell of sulfur coming from car
- no gas fumes, heat, or air coming from exhaust pipe.
We tried some form of lacquer thinner and that didn’t help, what should I do?
Have an inexpensive after market cat installed by someone other than a dealership or do it yourself. It's illegal to remove them all together and the car won't be happy. Good luck. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,2009,altima,2.5l+l4,1443141,exhaust,catalytic+converter,5808
You can check out the two links that both posted above. Bad Catalytic Converters are a common issue on those older 2.5 Altimas and the 2009 model year is no exception.
Depending where you live, the options are either to change the cat with OEM or change the cat with aftermarket.
If you live in a jurisdiction that allows it, you could also straight pipe the car, but only if you are allowed to where you live.
The cat in question is one in the same with the exhaust manifold… you can go aftermarket but it’s going to be a complete exhaust manifold assembly your looking for
