Hornet

So late last week I get in my car and I get a CEL. I call the dealership and get an appointment for Monday morning! After they checked it out they told me that they had to order a new Catalytic Converter and I think they also said something else (old age kicking in)! Well for the past few days I've been driving around with the bad Cat on the car and honestly the car feels better! It feels smoother, faster and everything! There's been a lot of times that I shift at high revs and the car stays planted but since this problem it breaks the tires loose every once in a while! Either way they are replacing it under warrantee (less than 1500 miles left til it's up). I think my first power mod will be a catback with a high flow cat! Am I crazy to want them not to fix the problem, I'm in California so I guess it has to happen!

dmc27

If you're that close to the warranty ending and want an aftermkt cat, see if you can pay the difference between stock and aftrmkt and have them install the one you want for a fraction of the price.

shaolin

^^^ Yeah and if they won't do that, maybe they'll give you a happy ending...As in...Massage with a happy ending

8is>enuff

I'm pretty sure there's a federally mandated 100K mi warranty on catalytic converters.

Also, I have a feeling the power gain you feel will turn into a power loss as the internals of the cat start clogging up the pipe. Let them replace it with a new one, then put on your high flow. BTW, retail on the factory cat is ~$1100. I doubt they would pay the difference.

MazdaTed

Now word of caution about driving with a clogged cat...

When I got my RX-7 from a friend of my dads, It had lost all compression in the rear rotor. The cat clogged about 1000 miles before that. They "fixed" the cats and contiued to drive it, then the rear rotor lost all compression.

Talking to a mazda tech about the blown seals he asked (without me telling him about it) if the cat had clogged. I said yes about 1000 miles before the engine died. He then said that the engine died because the rear seals got cooked by the rotary BBQ exaust backed up by the clogged cat.


I have no idea weather any of this is true or not, but that is what the mazda tech said.

Aseras

on a 13b motor it's possible the renesis is all side ports so the apex seals are not exposed to the exhaust port or the hot gasses like they were on a older 13b.

MazdaTed

I forgot the renisis was all side port. sorry


I wonder how sensitive the seals on the side of the rotors are (not the apex seals)?

Red_X8

I too have a clogged cat and I took it into the dealer also and after that the car felt great for about a week, then the cat clogged again, I think when they pulled it off they cleaned alot of the crud out of it. Another thing I noticed with the clogged cat, the heat is affecting the ignition coils, because I just replaced 2 of those, and also the gas mileage and oil consumption are both really high.

Hornet

So all of you think the cat is actually clogged?

AdRoCK3217

Dude, Apex seals are METAL, and saying they are not exposed to heat..I'm gonna give you the benefit of a doubt and say you might be high, or mentally unstable.

The inside of the combustion chamber is WHERE the heat is produced..it is the hottest part of the rotary engine, obviously...How do you think the heat is produced? The gas is ignited..and then the exhaust piping makes it hot ..?

The seals this mechanic is talking about are not apex seals, but rather, either the coolant, or oil seals. Most likely the coolant seals, as they are most likely to fry under extreme temperatures, due to there...non-metal design.

Did the RX-7 eat coolant? Spew white smoke? This would lead me to believe it ate the coolant seals. With a clogged cat, yes, it would "bottleneck" the hot rotary exhaust causing some very high EGT temps up near, and inside the engine.

Which is why its always nice to have an EGT gauge

portero23

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there also laws requiring use of OEM cats? I thought it was part of the whole "required to last 100,000 miles" thing and because aftermarket cats aren't tested to federal standards. You'd still pass smog tests with an aftermarket cat, but if they were to take a close look, you'd fail for tampering with the cat. For those reasons I doubt the dealer would go along with replacing the cat with aftermarket.

-P23

MazdaTed

If that question is directed towards me, I have no idea, my dads friend said that it lost compression in the rear rotor. Never mentioned eating coolant, spewing smoke.

I never took apart the engine as I never needed to since my dad was too afraid of the engne to rebuild it so we just bought a used one, the old engine is still sitting underneath the house.