What Are the Symptoms of a Clogged Catalytic Converter?
* Reduced Power * Reduced fuel economy * Noises 1. Reduced Power – The catalytic converter is a component of the exhaust system, and therefore must be kept free-flowing to allow the easy passage of exhaust. When the converters become clogged with debris or are broken, the engine has to work much harder to accelerate and idle because the exhaust pressure is backing up in the pipe. This will cause a highly erratic idle and or stalling, and little or no power on acceleration, as well as higher engine temperatures. If your vehicle suddenly seems to lose over half its power, the catalytic converter could be the culprit. 2. Reduced Fuel Economy – Since we now understand that a clogged catalytic converter makes the engine work much harder, we can understand how our gas mileage might decrease substantially. With that much backpressure in the exhaust, it is like the difference between blowing out of a drinking straw or a 2-inch pipe. It is much harder to blow through a drinking straw because it
