[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

@bblost, catcon is "poisoned" when leaded fuel is used. Not by mere long use.

[bblost]

Update.
I took my car to a private shed.
The mechanic figured out that the engine mount and reverse horn clamp etc were lose.
He tightened them all up.

Took all of 30 - 40 mins.
150 bucks.

The sound disappeared.
BUT
I got the sound again when I reached home.
The intensity and loudness is down 75%.
This mechanic is on the right track.

I will visit the shed again and hopefully get it fixed completly.
I am 99% sure the cat con has nothing to do with this sound.

Will update again once the sound has completely disappeared.

A special thanks to Suren for introducing me to Prabhu and also Ravveendrra for his review of Prabhu's workshop. New Mars at Moosapet X Roads, Hyderabad.

[bblost]

The noise was back.

Took it to an Auth Service Station.
Gem Motors, Kondapur.

They have one of the best facilities and I am very impressed with the professionalism and customer care.

The noise is coming from the Catcon and the muffler.
Cost for replacement is about 13k. 9k for catcon and 4k for muffler.

Once car is loaded on the elevator, its very easy to find the source.

Option 1: remove the mesh inside the catcon.
Refused. Car will pollute more. And no idea if it will really help as my muffler is also gone.

Option 2: Replace both. But option 3 seems better.

Option 3: Play music and keep windows up with AC on in parking lots.

The noise only comes at slow speeds and when the car is hot.
These are not my typical use cases. So for now have decided to drop the idea and just buy good music cd's

[vigsom]

do away with the catcon(let the cat in the catcon be removed only leaving the shell in place.

i agree this would be against the Environment,but still do it without any feeling of guilt.After all it is how many kgs of CO the car spews into the atmosphere that matters(use teh car less and it will anyway spew less)

This was done with success in a friend's Wagon-R with no adverse effects on the PUC check

[bblost]

Originally Posted by vigsom

do away with the catcon(let the cat in the catcon be removed only leaving the shell in place.

i agree this would be against the Environment,but still do it without any feeling of guilt.After all it is how many kgs of CO the car spews into the atmosphere that matters(use teh car less and it will anyway spew less)

This was done with success in a friend's Wagon-R with no adverse effects on the PUC check

I thought of doing this, in fact decided to do it and took the car to the service station with the intention.

But could not do this.

I weighed the money i would save. Rs 14,000.
On the other hand I thought if everyone though this way, what will my children breathe.

I will not add poison because I want to save some money.

I don't believe in the PUC check as a means of checking pollution levels. IMHO Any equipment in the hands of anything remotely titled Govt, stops working.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by bblost

Hyderabad - Chennai (650 kms, 11 hours) with just one 15 min break in between.
Is a wagon R not capable of such non stop drives?

Its very much possible; When I did a Chennai-Trivandrum trip, the car was running from 8:15 PM to next day 9:15 AM from Chennai to outskirts of Madurai with about 10 mins break (for tyre change). So you can say about 12+ hours of drive continuously.

Originally Posted by bblost

On the other hand I thought if everyone though this way, what will my children breathe.

I will not add poison because I want to save some money.

Noble thought; I too would do the same, if I were in your situation.

But question still remains, does the catcon goes kaput in 44K Kms? I'm asking this because, mine is on 42.7K now.

[bblost]

It should not conk out so soon.
The service guy gave the following probable reasons for early failure

1. Poor quality of fuel.
2. Engine Misfiring and causing unburnt fuel to enter the cat con.
3. Water entering from the exhaust side.
4. Bad luck.

I suspect #3 as I once drove the car thru heavy rains and water logged roads.
The car did NOT stall but the water level was high. I cannot remember if this happened before or after the noise started. But was sometime around it.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by bblost

1. Poor quality of fuel.
2. Engine Misfiring and causing unburnt fuel to enter the cat con.
3. Water entering from the exhaust side.
4. Bad luck.

Tks for sharing the reasons. I'm penning down a few thoughts of mine on the above points. On point #2, if the engine misfires, its very easy for any experienced people like us to check on it immediately. When it misfires, we would eventually go about checking the plugs, coils, distributor & so on & hence I have my own doubts on this point.

Again on point #1, I believe you (or any TBHPian) would be filling up from a regular fuel station where the quality of fuel should be decent enough. Even if the fuel were being filled from some poor quality of fuel from unknown fuel station on highways, then that should be temporary phenomenon, unless it becomes a regular practice.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by aargee

.

But question still remains, does the catcon goes kaput in 44K Kms? I'm asking this because, mine is on 42.7K now.

Dont think so. Mine has crossed 53.5 K kms and still doing good. I too went through deep water last year, but all I had was a lot of muck on my radiator that needed to be sprayed out.

Maybe I was lucky!!

The only gripe I have was that I had to change both drive shafts at around 51 K on the odo.

[kutts]

Is facing a similar rattling sound on Zen Estillo.Run only 35K. Initially I thought it was the exhaust system being loose. Checked with MASS yesterday and the guy put it up on a ramp.

He pulled at the exhaust, it was loose. But also gave a sound as if there were broken metal pieces inside the pipe. He said that the cat con would have been damaged and the pieces would then be stuck inside the pipe and the muffler.

He gave two options. The best and costly option was to replace the entire set for 12-14K.

Or he could open the first section, clean up the cat con. Then cut open the muffler,clear it of debris, re-weld it back. He did mention that there would be lesser fuel efficiency, higher emission and visible smoke when accelerating hard if this option is taken.

I can really live with the light rattling sound. I do not want to invest 14K on the car since I am planning to sell it in the next 6 months. And I do not want to cut it open and make a mess and then not tell the new buyer about it.

My question is - Is is safe to have a broken cat con running ? Agree that the emissions may be larger (but lesser than taking it off completely), but does it cause any damage to the engine or life of the car if it remains unchanged ?

[bblost]

Originally Posted by kutts

My question is - Is is safe to have a broken cat con running ? Agree that the emissions may be larger (but lesser than taking it off completely), but does it cause any damage to the engine or life of the car if it remains unchanged ?

I wrote this back then:

Originally Posted by bblost

My car has gone in for service today.

Its done about 44k kms and is a August 2004 model.
The milage is a good 13.5 kmpl and there are no issues with acceleration and top speed.

Now my car is over 60k kms. It still returns about 13-13.5 kms. The top speed and acceleration are the same.

In fact last month, covered 900 kms in one day.

I did nothing to the cat-con. Just treat it like nagging girlfriend.
Also my car clears the PUC without any issues.

[rahulrajeev]

My Chevy Optra 1.6 is having the catalytic converter issue for the past 6 months. Previously my Optra could go up to 80-90 Kmph when it is 2000RPM, but now it has come down to 60-70Kmph at 2000rpm.I am getting the noise till 1800rpm and not after that. I have order for the part replacement it will cost me 12-15K INR. I even thought of removing the cat con completely but later dropped that option as it might affect the sound of the vehicle. For a WagonR this issue at 50K-60K on ODO is too premature. As you said its unfortunate...