OT: 98 ford ranger w/ CEL, catalyst effic. below threshold/ 1 bank....

[ryan roopnarine]

vehicle in question has 19x,xxx miles. from the looks of it, looks like the old vulcan 3.0l v6 engine. not my vehicle, but i'm driving it around because my mini-freezer won't fit through the back door of the e34. i haven't had the chance to crawl under and confirm the presence of 2 catalytic converters (and more importantly, 4 oxygen sensors). i'm thinking that the post cat oxygen sensor on one side is going bad, and detecting the "inefficiency" of the catalyst. motor has a little bit of detonation, not THAT bad for an american car with so many miles, may just need a bottle of FI cleaner. any thoughts? i/we hope it isn't likely a catalytic converter.

[Bill R.]

job is or was all that time that you wouldn't reveal it, so i can tell Brian

vehicle in question has 19x,xxx miles. from the looks of it, looks like the old vulcan 3.0l v6 engine. not my vehicle, but i'm driving it around because my mini-freezer won't fit through the back door of the e34. i haven't had the chance to crawl under and confirm the presence of 2 catalytic converters (and more importantly, 4 oxygen sensors). i'm thinking that the post cat oxygen sensor on one side is going bad, and detecting the "inefficiency" of the catalyst. motor has a little bit of detonation, not THAT bad for an american car with so many miles, may just need a bottle of FI cleaner. any thoughts? i/we hope it isn't likely a catalytic converter.

[winfred]

sperm bank delivery driver, a "hot shot driver" if you will

job is or was all that time that you wouldn't reveal it, so i can tell Brian

[Scott H]

Disclaimer: I didn't force you to click on the link so don't come bitching after you do!!!

NSFW xxx

http://www.bimmer.info/~scotth/TheGo...Big%20Shot.mpg

NSFW xxx

sperm bank delivery driver, a "hot shot driver" if you will

[DanDombrowski]

Ryan,

I'd like to know myself. I'm doing the same thing on a Honda Accord with considerably fewer miles. I bought the O2 sensor, will be putting it in hopefully today if I can make my way down to my dads house (its his car).

Unfortunately, his car is a 4 cyl, so it only has the one catalytic converter. I was forced to buy the oxygen sensor, btu I believe in your case, if you don't mind some work, you can swap the 2 post cat O2 sensors (if it has 1 cat per bank) and see if the code switches sides. That may keep you from unnecessarily purchasing an o2 sensor.

I've researched it a bit, and I've heard a few different scenarios that make sense to me.

Bad O2 - will find out when you switch or replace
leak in exhaust (should be easy enough to find)
Bad Cat - hoping its not this option.

Let me know what you find out

[ryan roopnarine]

job is or was all that time that you wouldn't reveal it, so i can tell Brian

oh, so CSI miamm-y is involved. i don't seem to recall him ever posting a pic of himself without sunglasses on (or post 1946 ), so no dice.

dan, the suspense was killing me, so i threw some newspaper down on the ground this morning, and looked underneath. one catalytic converter, but there's definitely a single o2s behind it. i guess i'll have to go pull this one out and wirewheel it and see, or get a testing unit from the junkyard. i just don't want to have to go to the junkyard and get a cat. converter for this thing. if i were you, i'd just throw my hands up and tell everybody that i wasn't working on their cars anymore. you had the japan-man van valve cover gaskets (i didn't actually know that the previa was a "end of the line" japan-van, just that it was RWD, you have this, you have that.....I'm always carrying around a couple gallons of used oil from someone elses car in my trunk, but i don't think i have things as bad as you.

ps...i was fascinated the first time i saw a toyota van with the seat out in the junkyard. was wondering how the heck you could consider that a "serviceable" design. i know the chevy expresses, et al are bad, but they don't need you to take out the seat to look at the motor.

[ryan roopnarine]

ps....winfred. as everybody seems to be ignoring my pm's.
ill ask you here if you own a makarov or pa-63. i know that's one of the "subjects" that we are supposed to avoid, but just wanted to check and see. im considering buying one for someone as a moderate->expensive wedding present.

[DaCan23]

remind me to invite you to my wedding... I'd take it as a present...

ps....winfred. as everybody seems to be ignoring my pm's.
ill ask you here if you own a makarov or pa-63. i know that's one of the "subjects" that we are supposed to avoid, but just wanted to check and see. im considering buying one for someone as a moderate->expensive wedding present.

[DanDombrowski]

Yeah, I hear ya. I gotta stop this garage business. Traffic is great....but revenues are down.

I work on the Eclipse alot because it gives me a free convertible for the week, and I love convertibles. Everything else though, yeah, its too much. Sometimes I just feel sorry for people when they get charged $90 to get their check engine codes read, so I read them for them with my scanner. Then I have to help them find the part, install it, etc.

I try to limit it to easy, non trivial jobs (throttle body cleanings, valve cover gaskets, O2 sensor replacements) and not so much maintenance (oil changes, coolant flushes, brake pads). I steer clear of electrical stuff, I've had enough of that. I usually offer because I hate seeing people ripped off for simple stuff, but in the end, no ones really grateful for you changing their oil, at least not as much as they should be.

BTW, the O2 sensor (from BMA) did not come yesterday when I was expecting it, so hopefully it will be there today.

[Bill R.]

.

vehicle in question has 19x,xxx miles. from the looks of it, looks like the old vulcan 3.0l v6 engine. not my vehicle, but i'm driving it around because my mini-freezer won't fit through the back door of the e34. i haven't had the chance to crawl under and confirm the presence of 2 catalytic converters (and more importantly, 4 oxygen sensors). i'm thinking that the post cat oxygen sensor on one side is going bad, and detecting the "inefficiency" of the catalyst. motor has a little bit of detonation, not THAT bad for an american car with so many miles, may just need a bottle of FI cleaner. any thoughts? i/we hope it isn't likely a catalytic converter.