- :
- bay area, CA
- :
- 2002 Protege5
Hey all, I’ve just bought a protege5 for pretty cheap, and I knew it would need new valve stem seals and got a pretty good deal because of this. It blows a big cloud of oil smoke on cold starts. What I didn’t anticipate, however, is that I’d need to replace the top cat in order to pass CA smog and register it. When I took it to get smogged, he said the O2 sensors were fine but the cat was bad. And now the code I’m getting is the p0421 (warmup catalyst efficiency below threshold bank 1).
So obviously I’m going to have to get this for smog. I tried ordering a magnaflow CA top cat from hottexhaust but after I bought it they said the eta was March 7th which is obviously not okay so I’m going to try to refund and search elsewhere. On top of that, when I’ve called mechanics around for a quote on the valve stem seals they’re all saying upwards of $1800, which is more than anticipated from what I saw online. I’ve considered doing it myself for the savings and experience butttt I’ve never done anything involving timing on an engine so I’m pretty wary, and it seems quite time consuming (I’ll be starting community college classes again soon). Feel free to convince me to do this myself.
Let’s say I do get a cat first and it arrives. Should I refrain from installing it until I get the valve stem seals replaced? Could the smoky startup foul a new cat? I’d love to get it smogged and registered in my name asap but obviously don’t want to blow out a new cat.
So obviously I’m going to have to get this for smog. I tried ordering a magnaflow CA top cat from hottexhaust but after I bought it they said the eta was March 7th which is obviously not okay so I’m going to try to refund and search elsewhere. On top of that, when I’ve called mechanics around for a quote on the valve stem seals they’re all saying upwards of $1800, which is more than anticipated from what I saw online. I’ve considered doing it myself for the savings and experience butttt I’ve never done anything involving timing on an engine so I’m pretty wary, and it seems quite time consuming (I’ll be starting community college classes again soon). Feel free to convince me to do this myself.
Let’s say I do get a cat first and it arrives. Should I refrain from installing it until I get the valve stem seals replaced? Could the smoky startup foul a new cat? I’d love to get it smogged and registered in my name asap but obviously don’t want to blow out a new cat.