jbwilson3791
Active Member
- Joined
- October 6, 2012
- Messages
- 94
- Reaction score
- 0
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2004 Ford Explorer
I drive a 2004 Ford Explorer 4.0 Sohc 6 cylinder 4wd, 64,000 miles. A few weeks ago I noticed a loud rattle when starting the engine and on the Down Rev. I eventually traced the noise to inside the passenger side catalytic converter. The last few weeks I've been trying to figure out why my vehicle was leaking transmission fluid, I finally have that under control, jiffy lube had put over 7 extra quarts in it but now I need to figure out this bad Cat. Just today I noticed the engine won't go over 4,000 RPM and what looks like ground up cardboard with gold colored flakes has been coming out the exhaust(I assume these are the precious metals from within the catalytic converter). I guess my questions to this board are, since this catalytic converter is breaking down, will it eventually unclog itself? Should I spend the 300$ and replace the Y shaped catalytic converter exhaust segment? Or is there a cheap alternative to fixing this? I've heard you can bust out the stuff inside, but since the catalytic converters are one continuous piece of Y shaped metal it appears hard to remove. I'm willing to do about anything as long as it doesn't set the check engine lights off. Does anyone have any experience with this issue before? Thanks in advance for any help!