Hey fellas,
I'm new to this forum but have a been a long time Dodge/Chrysler owner also and have always had amazing advice and insight with owners forums such as these. In any case, I have a 2002 Protege DX (2.0L?, auto) with 160k miles. I've owned it for a few months and had now issues at all really, except the check engine light was on for a code on the rear (down stream) O2 sensor - I can't recall the code number now. I changed both O2 sensors and cleared it out and after an hour or so of driving (over a few trips) it came back on. I then did an old trick I've done on my cars in the past of sipping a small, SMALL stream of Seafoam into the vacuum lines and let it vaporize into the intake manifold. I used about 1/3 of the can, and like I said I've done this plenty of times on other cars and it blows some crap and smoke from the tailpipe and generally runs at least a tiny bit better. Well on this occurrence, as I ran the Seafoam it smoked out a little, not as much as I'm used to, and then when I was done with the cleaner it idled and ran fine. A few hours later when driving, after coming up to full operating temperature it was sluggish to accelerate from a stop, had a lopy idle and the fuel consumption jumped way up. I know I've probably fouled out a plug or two, but all my indications point to the catalytic converter(s) being pretty clogged and the seafoam was enough of a change to make them gum up when warm. I've had cats do the same thing (minus the seafoam) and really beat down an engine when warmed up, but run fine at the cold start.
Here's my questions. I am planning on replacing the "front" catalytic converter directly between the O2 sensors.
A) is this usually the problem child being immediately off the manifold, or is the other underneath, or both deteriorate evenly?
B) Since there is no O2 sensor following the "rear" catalytic converter to monitor exhaust after that point, if I remove the rear cat and put in a straight pipe, would my engine light still stay on and /or would I create a running problem due to lack of back pressure?
KY has no emissions checks in place and I would do the work myself, I know that know shop would do this for me. I appreciate any insights!!!
I'm new to this forum but have a been a long time Dodge/Chrysler owner also and have always had amazing advice and insight with owners forums such as these. In any case, I have a 2002 Protege DX (2.0L?, auto) with 160k miles. I've owned it for a few months and had now issues at all really, except the check engine light was on for a code on the rear (down stream) O2 sensor - I can't recall the code number now. I changed both O2 sensors and cleared it out and after an hour or so of driving (over a few trips) it came back on. I then did an old trick I've done on my cars in the past of sipping a small, SMALL stream of Seafoam into the vacuum lines and let it vaporize into the intake manifold. I used about 1/3 of the can, and like I said I've done this plenty of times on other cars and it blows some crap and smoke from the tailpipe and generally runs at least a tiny bit better. Well on this occurrence, as I ran the Seafoam it smoked out a little, not as much as I'm used to, and then when I was done with the cleaner it idled and ran fine. A few hours later when driving, after coming up to full operating temperature it was sluggish to accelerate from a stop, had a lopy idle and the fuel consumption jumped way up. I know I've probably fouled out a plug or two, but all my indications point to the catalytic converter(s) being pretty clogged and the seafoam was enough of a change to make them gum up when warm. I've had cats do the same thing (minus the seafoam) and really beat down an engine when warmed up, but run fine at the cold start.
Here's my questions. I am planning on replacing the "front" catalytic converter directly between the O2 sensors.
A) is this usually the problem child being immediately off the manifold, or is the other underneath, or both deteriorate evenly?
B) Since there is no O2 sensor following the "rear" catalytic converter to monitor exhaust after that point, if I remove the rear cat and put in a straight pipe, would my engine light still stay on and /or would I create a running problem due to lack of back pressure?
KY has no emissions checks in place and I would do the work myself, I know that know shop would do this for me. I appreciate any insights!!!
