What are people typically seeing out of the catalytic converter on an R56 S (N14)? My car has 106k, I bought it with 99k and has had a catalyst efficiency code (but no CEL for it???) since I bought it. No oxygen sensor codes. The exhaust smells like my cat-less 1976 Datsun 280Z, but I never noticed until this weekend when I unknowingly disturbed the rear hatch seal unloading a rear axle from my Jeep and began letting exhaust into the cabin.

As far as catalyst-failure-causes go, I wondered if oil consumption killed it because in the first couple of weeks after I purchased it, it was consuming oil around a quart every 600 miles, but it's down to maybe every 1500-2000 miles now. Only thing I did was top it off with and eventually change to Castrol Edge 5w40 A3/B4 so maybe the used dealer I bought it from had changed it with some generic 0w20. Or maybe it was my driving habits calming down once the initial novelty of having a turbo wore off.

I only intend to keep the car for about another year so I don't want to replace the cat if there's any likely possibility that it will fail again before then. I will put about 20k miles on it in that time, and I'm leaning toward just replacing it before I sell it so it'll be brand new for the next owner.

 

For anybody that reads this I like to follow up on threads I start.

The exhaust smell is coming from a leak somewhere under the hood. Likely coincidental with the catalyst code. Now just gotta find it and fix it before I pass out at the wheel with carbon monoxide poisoning.

I am still curious about catalyst diagnosis. Upstream O2 sensor is reading around 1.5V and downstream sensor is about 0.74V at cruise.

 

funny, our 2008 r56 s uses a the same or more oil then yours, we swaped to mobile 1 0w40 and it seems to use less oil.

I also have a p0420 code @ 108k miles, due to were i live, there isn't any one around who wants to touch it. the local exhaust shop who did the flex pipe 2 years ago said 750$ parts and labor. after reading the pelican parts articles they have the labor listed as 9.5 hours. we don't wanta sell it yet, but I've dropped a ton of cash into it so far this year, the number gets bigger. the lite is on all the time, and i can't clear it. rock auto has the cat for 250$ with my jeep and work schedule it could take me 2 weeks :(

 

i bought a i.r. thermometer gun, and was told but the local garage how to check it the cat is backing up with heat. got drive it and get it up to temp, then ck the temp on the cat pipe, before, the cat, the cat, and after the cat. the hottest point should be before the cat due to blockage.

 

same boat. I've only owned it for 4 months and had I not done my own labor it's possible I could have spent as much fixing it as I did to buy it to begin with. Thermostat housing, crossover pipe, walnut blast, vacuum pump, flex pipe, and now the cat. And the thermostat housing and vacuum pump I took off were both newer than the car. My CEL for the cat has been mostly on for the last couple of weeks, but it'll still shut off for a day or so every now and then.

I saw that labor estimate from Pelican. I think it includes putting the radiator support into service mode, which I'm not convinced is entirely necessary as I found a youtube vid of a turbo upgrade on a JCW where they pulled the cat/downpipe without doing that. So that might speed it up somewhat. But still it's on the edge of what I want to take on myself. I'm in the middle of an axle regear job on my Jeep, in the design process for a custom home build, and right in the meat of vacation season with 2 kids under 5 so for the first time in my life I'm in a place where my time might actually be more valuable than my money. I'm about settled on buying a Honda or Toyota to drive to work, fixing this thing and selling it. I just can't continue to own a $6k car that averages $300 in parts and 6 hours of my labor every month. I get remorseful thinking about the Toyota I sold to buy this, that despite being older and having more than DOUBLE the odometer mileage, I drove for 6 years and 70k miles and had less unscheduled maintenance in both parts and time than the first 3 weeks I had this car.

 

ya, I did the thermostat spider leg thing, all 4 wheel bearings, vacuum pump o ring, cam cover gasket etc. if you can regear a jeep axle you can do this. I have time, sorta.... trying to re do a flat fender... if it was cheap enough i'd pay to have some one do it. not sure were the shop I just got any est from got there labor est from ?? but they said 4 hours est was 750$ the car is worth 2 k.. so maybe a yota is next ??

 

yeah I'm definitely not worried about the skill level...though technically I'M not doing the regear, I just pulled the axles, stripped them down, delivered to a shop to do the gear setup, and am in the process of putting them back in. It's just that I don't object as much to doing work to make the Jeep better as much as I do fixing a part on my daily driver that shouldn't have broken or worn out this early, let alone multiple times.

 

I m shopping for parts now. going to try and do it next weeked. i'm gonna look for that video 2day and see if there is any short cuts.

 

I think 9.5 hours is way high. I just replaced my Turbocharger, downpipe, CAI and FMIC in less time then that, putting the bumper into the service position definitely makes things much easier and only takes about 45 minutes. The room it exposes was a godsend for this guy with these clubs for hands BTW my CAT had 173K miles on it (mostly highway) and was still functioning fine.

 

So would you say that you can remove the front cat on S model with out having to move the rad forward ? did you remove the fan ? thx for the help

 

I moved the bumper forward into the service position which doesn't require removing anything up front as far as fan, radiator etc.

Could you do it without putting the bumper in the service position? Yea I think you could but it's tight, Like I said I moved my bumper out around 4 inches into the service position and it made things extremely easy, probably worth the extra 1.5 hours to do it that way. The worst would probably be getting to the connector to the lower O2 sensor. Also where the downpipe mounts on the bottom flange with the 2 bolts, you can save yourself a lot of frustration and loosen the bracket that mounts the hanger to the engine, it's only one bolt on each side.

 

This is the video.

 

thanks, I saw that. but didn't think it would cover the pipe r & r. I will watch it now.

 

thx I did it sat, took around 4-5 hours went pretty smooth.