Had some new pre cats fitted today.
I'd been driving around for a while with a CEL light on. It had been reset a few times but cam back on again after a few miles. The reason for it was that the cats were overheating. This was initially confusing as the later 4200's did away with the thermocouple. Anyway these models use the Lambda sensors each side of the precats to calculate the temperature.
During a comprehensive service, Emblem removed the Lambdas and put a camera inside to see what was going on. They identified the left hand cat had a hole and the right hand was starting to break up.
As said in the earlier post this is a dodgy situation as the remnants can be sucked back up into the block and severely damage the engine. I'd been driving around for quite a long period like this, arghh!
Having hunted around for the next step I could have gone the Maserati route for £3.5k, or the Larini for 2.5, but eventually decided to just replace the cats with Charlie at Pro-Speed in Cardiff. Yep I would travel from Essex to Wales if I can find someone with a good reputation and that I can trust.
So he cut out the old ceramic ones and welded in new steel ones. The advice from him was strong to not use ceramic as the same thing will happen again whereas steel will last the life of the vehicle.
Cost, ignoring the fuel, hotel, the "lovely little" liqueur glasses she had to buy in Cardiff and the drinks in the pub last night, was under £500.
The cats fitted were slightly bigger and the squished section just after them is now no more. That was a little worry but there were some significant road humps that you have to put your wheels each side off just around the corner from the workshop and there were no scraping noises, phew!
Did I notice a little more power on the way home? Well I was certainly more relaxed.
The battery was off while they were working on it and the CEL stayed off all the way home. Hoorah.
Charlie talked through the job beforehand and showed it after it was complete. He has some other guys working for him but they were there to help. He did all the difficult stuff. I believed I picked the right one for the job.
Here's a couple of shots of the old cats. The left hand had the biggest hole.