Anybody else had their catalytic converters fail? I already replaced one of these on my '05 HAH, and now the 2nd one is failing. At least, that's what the diagnostic trouble code says, when I took the car in with the Check Engine Light illuminated. The dealer is ordering the part.

I did not know until today that this car has 2 catalytic converters. My car has only 41K miles. It's a good thing this is under warranty. Turns out that the catalytic converters are covered for 8 years, 80K miles.

 

My Ford Escape had three cats! I can understand a V6 having two, one for each bank. But three?

Did the dealer say why they think your cats are failing?

 

George
If I was your dealer I would replace the plugs and check for proper ignition operation. Probably wouldn't hurt to see if the gasolene has any thing in it that would cause a problem.Oh and I believe our 05 HAHs have three cats also

 

Me too! I'm just back from the dealer and they tell me the catalytic converter needs replacement for the second time. I understand there are 3 main components, 2 cost approx. $600 each and one cost approx. $1000.

This second time they are going to replace the 2 - $600 components.

The car has just under 30K and is still under warranty.

They told me Honda says it's due to too much Ethanol in the fuel being sold in the North East. But I see the original post in this thread is from someone in Chicago.

I'm very bummed out because I fear this will be a recurring problem and I bought a Honda specifically to avoid repair problems.

Would I be covered by lemon laws if this happens again?

I'd be interested to hear from any other Accord Hybrid owners experiencing similar issues.

 

Here in the Chicago area, our gasoline is 10% ethanol. The Honda dealer didn't mention anything about ethanol as a possible root cause of the problem when they replaced either of my catalytic converters, though. I did try to get some insight from the service guy about exactly why these were failing, but he had no real answer.

 

For what its worth, my son has a NON-hybrid car that was setting the check engine lite within moments of resetting it indicating the catalytic converter output was out of spec. The dealer said it needs replacement at some huge sum of money. The car has 70k miles on it.

I decided to do a tune up, replaced the plugs, plug wires, oil and air filters and of course the oil.

I reset the check engine lite one month ago and no more lite. Oh, by the way, also replaced the battery too on the same day which reminds me... My friend who also has a non-hybrid was throwing all sorts of error codes. His dealer tried everything and nothing resolved the problems TILL they replaced his battery. The battery was tested as was mine and his was tested as bad. I tested mine with a hydrometer and had two cells which were dead as can be.

So, the reason I post this is because the PROBLEM doesnt HAVE to be the cat to lite the cat lite.


Best of luck finding and resolving your problems

Tony

 

I have the same prob as yours bro.. My catalytic converter's killing me.. I guess I have to take it to the shop

 

Yikes. Just had the MIL / Check Engine Light blink on this week while cruising at 68mph. This on a 2006 HAH with 19.1k miles. The OBD-II scan emits:

P0420 catalyst efficiency below threshhold, bank 1

If this recurs, the shop manual recommends replacement of one of the catalytic converters. Another possible cause is poor fuel quality.

Are other folks having MIL's lighting up?

 

15400 miles, 2006 HAH, no MIL. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

47K miles on my '05 HAH and no problems with my cats.

At least we've got an 8yr/80K warranty on the cats if they do go bad.