Well, here is the problem. A while back, a posted a thread about how my 2004 F150 cat's went out. As a summary, I have a flowmaster muffler istalled as well as a Superchips 1714 and a K&N air filter. My cat's went out at about 15,000 miles and my impression was that is was due to the Superchips tunner. I contacted Superchips and they are, of course, claiming no fault. As a favor to me because I had modified the exhaust, I found a dealer (in my home town which is far away from where I live) that would give me the cats and require me to have them installed and return the bad converters so as to keep everything under warranty. Well, I took the truck to a local popular mufler shop and after they put the new cats on, the check engine light began to come on. Using the tunner, I pulled the codes and found that is was the O2 sensor, obviously. Now, I'm back in LA and nobody will touch my truck. Dealers are basically saying that because the exhaust system is modified, they wont do any warranty work on it. So now what. I can't get back do the dealer that took care of me on the cats very easily. If I take it to a muffler shop or a dealer, they will charge me an arm and a leg. What a headache. I just want my truck back to stock so I can quite dealing with all thses problems. Is anybody else having these issues? What should I do? Return to stock by buying a muffler from the dealer? Have a muffler shop replace my O2 sensors? Get it back to the dealer that took care of me the first time? I am begining to hate this truck....

 

Check your MAF sensor.....with the K&N it might have alot of the oil from the filter all over it....happened to my truck and i just have a drop in K&N.....got some compressed air and blew all of the oil out of there...it was amazing just to SEE the crud come out of there.....but after that the truck ran great. make sure you disconnect the battery and turn the lights on to run all the power out of the system before you touch anything......this way when you turn it back on you'll see results right away.....if your maf is dirty it will make it run lean.....clean it out and it should be ok.

 

If O2 sensors is the only problem you can easily replace them yourself right in your driveway. Use Bosch

 

What makes you think it's a bad cat the only way to tell if it's bad cats is watching up stream and down stream EGO's. The up stream EGO's should switch between .1volt and .9 volts the down stream should stay around .5 volt. If it is doing this cats are ok. Now if one of the dowm stream mirror the up stream EGO that side cat is bad. Up streams not switching the if one side is showing lean then most likly its a vacum leak like an intake, If both show lean the it is more then likely a MAF sensor. A cat back system will not hurt the cats, also unless the tuner is very rich and dumping fuel and melts the catsit won't hurt the cats. You need to have it hooked up to WDS or need a way to watch pids. Just pulling codes doesn't cut it sorry.

 

OK.....If I understood half of what the heck you were talking about or understood all of your abreviations, I wouldn't need to post things on this web site.... The cat's went bad. They started to rattle as they do when they go bad. I used to own a chevy and went through 2 cats in 150k miles so I know what to lister for when they go bad. After they wre replaced, a check engine light started coming on.......so......

I did a little more investigating. The code was # P2197. It is "O2 Sens Signal Stuck Lean bank2 Sens1. To me, that narrows down to one O2 sensor which I have decided to get replaced. I'm getting it done tomorrow. I think that when they were replacing the cat's, they damaged the sensor. As far as the reason they went bad, the more I think about it and the more I learn, the more I lean towards that Superchips tunner causing the problem.

Just for gigles, I decided to blow out the MAF as well. Thanks for the tip Mattieb87 for the tip. Hoefully, by replacing the sensor and cleaning the MAF, it should take care of the problem.....we will see.....

 

That is an upstream O2(EGO) its most likely not pluged in all the way they can be very hard to lock in(belive me I know first hand) check it to be sure. I would be VERY careful with the MAF when "blowing it out". Up stream EGO's are before the cat and reads the history pf the fuel mixture, down stream EGO's mesure cat efficiency. But a rattle is a loose conveter different problem all together. I really doubt it was the tuner IMHO.

 

[QUOTE=Redrider731]That is an upstream O2(EGO) its most likely not pluged in all the way they can be very hard to lock in(belive me I know first hand) check it to be sure. QUOTE]
I had the same problem with my old truck. I welded the converter in myself and plugged everything back in. The light came on soon after running it when I checked one plug was not snapped all the way in. Want hurt to check before spending more.

 

It will only take a few minutes to get under the truck and ensure the O2s are plugged in. I went to AutoZone to purchase the O2 wrench when I changed my Mustangs out. It is not difficult.

I also agree that the tuner did not cause the cats to go bad. If they were rattling more than likely it was a defect in factory workmanship. Also, adding a cat-back exhaust or even swapping in a muffler should NOT have any adverse effects on the cats and NOT void the factory warranty. The dealership is just doing their best to avoid paying a claim!

 

Just curious. How many people have had bad cats? In the last 25 years of owning Fords, I've never had one go bad. I remember Chevy having a problem, and I also remember Chevy people replacing their cats with a Ford type. (Flowed Better) I have had an 02 code. just replaced and drove away with no problem. x-star, you have lousy dealers. The dealer doesn't pay for warranty work. He gets paid to do it. Usually at a much lower hourly rate, but he does get paid. My dealer will just re-flash the proper codes and make it right. No big deal.

good luck.

 

I've already gone through $6000 worth on my explorer lol....(3 sets)

 

never * been driving 30 plus years

 

I went through mine because of a lean fuel condition....exhuast gases too hott..cleaned out my MAF sensor the other day and it runs 100% better

 

x-star, what dealer are you going to? I am also in the High Desert, Victorville side. The dealer there would not do warranty work if there is anyway around it. Galpin Ford in the valley, or Citrus Ford in Ontario are both staffed with real mechanics. You might just try one of them. The cat back setup has Jack to do with the cats, or O2.
It is possible that the cats were damaged by a total idiot working under the truck, but not likely.

It is very likely a sensor wire was not pushed back on all the way, as has been posted.

You need a different dealer though. Balking on a Catback is extreme, even for Southern California.
Chris

 

Mattie,

How many miles on your Explorer? $6000.00! WOW.

 

I had an 82 150 that the cats plugged up so bad it made all the seals leak and the thing wouldn't go over 40mph. Man when I got home it looked like you could see thru the manifolds!