Catalytic converter technical help
 

Hi, I have recently had a vehicle inspection report done on my Mazda Rx8 which unfortunately stopped working November last year. The car was running absolutely fine and all of a sudden the engine cut out with no warning lights and would not start again. I took the vehicle back to the trader who I purchased it from as I only had the vehicle for 4 months and 1 week, the trader refused to help so Ive taken them to court. in the inspection report it states that the coil pack had started to burn through, spark plugs were worn, and the catalytic converter was glowing cherry red, with the inside of the catalytic converter disintegrated. it goes onto say "the car has been continued to drive despite the warning signs" (engine management light, under performance). Obviously my issue with that comment is immense as I hadn't had any "warning signs" at least noticeable to myself! does anybody have a valid explanation why?


Also is there a maximum amount of time a catalytic converter can take to totally disintegrate? preferably in miles. I had covered 8000 miles in the 4 months I owned the car which I agree is a lot for the time but not excessive. the other question I have is, is there a minimum amount of time it would take for a catalytic converter to disintegrate? If anybody can try to help I would be very great full!!


I have included the pictures from the report for you to have a look at!

How many miles were on the car when you bought it? The factory coils are a wear item, and are typically shot by 30k miles. Weak coils generate less spark, less spark leads to a dirtier combustion, and that clogs up and kills cats. It's a big, dirty snowball effect.

I'm not sure how long it takes for a cat to die after the coils start to go, but it sounds like the coils were on their way out when you bought the car, and the driving you did on the bad coils killed your cat.

If you had owned the car since new, you likely would have noticed the bad coils before anything serious happened. The warning sign there would have been decreased power over time. As far as I know the engine light only comes on/flashes in the event of a miss-fire.

Hi cheers for your reply, there were 62,000 is miles on the vehicle when I brought it, and it died on 70,000. That was my initial feeling that I inherited the problem, but this specialist who is carrying out his opinion in the court document is adamant that there is no way that the cat would have had ANY damage when I brought the car as it wouldn't have been able to last 8000 miles. I have been asked by the judge to ask questions to the specialist to try and help my case. Obviously I am worried as I have no reason to lie, I had purchased an extended warranty at my own cost, so if there were any warning signs I would have taken it straight into the garage to get checked out. unfortunately the warranty I paid for didn't cover engine damage, but did cover the cat!!!!!

The specialist says when the coils had blown that would have sent the light on, which I would tend to agree with him, but if the cat had already been seriously damaged previously then the coils had blown then my thinking is that could have packed the cat up in no time?

Not so sure, Just a thought..

If someone previously masked the engine light with a cobb or mazda edit software, would the engine light still come on at all for any other issues?

I've never used a cobb, not yet anyway, but my understanding of it is if you know what code you want blocked it will block the light from showing up for that code.

Bad coils should only throw and engine light if they misfire, in which case the light will flash. No misfire, no warning lights.

Thank you for your replies, I will put that to the specialist and see what he comes back with. I need to load him with as many questions, theories, and scenarios as possible! keep them coming people!

Just the obvious real fast... You did make sure the check light comes on at all?
As in, when the ignition is turned to ON the light illuminates?