Pre-cat gutting meet

Slacey · January 24, 2005, 06:34

Quote from: "markiii"3. A trip to halfords for some penetrating oil is a necesity and you will need to douse manifold bolts and 02 socket threads liberally at regular intervals the week before.

This will be more productive if you remove the manifold heatshield the week before too, access to all the bolts is far easier with it off.

markiii · January 24, 2005, 09:22

good advice

Anonymous · January 28, 2005, 08:46

Hopefully I'll be there! Will PM to confirm. What a fun day it will be! s:D

s:D

Anonymous · January 29, 2005, 12:12

Righty, half a can of penetrant sprayed on studs, o2 sockets and the exhaust manifold studs too, car moved into garage and it'll sit there until Monday AM, so plenty of time to soak it all in.

heathstimpson · January 29, 2005, 20:52

It may be worthy for someone to post some pictures to advise the unknown of where to spray their penetrating fluid s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

markiii · January 30, 2005, 00:39

just ask the missus nicely mate :-) :-) :-)

Anonymous · January 30, 2005, 01:44

QuoteIt may be worthy for someone to post some pictures to advise the unknown of where to spray their penetrating fluid.

It's already more or less available here:
m http://www.spydermagazine.com/ m

Look at the article on "PPE Header Installation." Note the drawn green arrows in the pictures. Anything shown from the manifold to the precat-to-downpipe connection is worth hitting several times with loosener. In addition to removing the heat shields, you'll also save a lot of time by removing the lower cover (aka: diaper) beneath the car. This gives you access to the lower nuts involved, and allows you to spray the two fittings that bolt the precat chambers to the block. The 12 and 14mm bolts there can be problematic.

Anonymous · January 30, 2005, 13:04

Thought I'd get a head start this morning and spray all the bolts ready for the meet. Of course the first bolt on the heatshield snapped, have managed to get it out and will get new bolt tomorrow. Can't remove sensors as I don't have the spanner, can anyone tell me a part number and where to get one? s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Anonymous · January 30, 2005, 15:06

Erm... Erm... help?!

Okay, so I thought I'd try and get a good start on this as well, so popped down to Halfords this morning and got some penetrating spray. Came home and started spraying all the bolts, and taking off bits like the heatshield (both parts), the lower nappy (awkward) and the O2 sensors (seeing as I have a socket which I'll bring Sunday, Bowman). Had a quick peek inside the O2 sensor sockets, just to see what a pre-cat actually looks like in person... and promptly wet myself. s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

My right-hand pre-cat has what appears to be a hole in it, where I'm presuming a bit of it has broken off/disintegrated!

I'm 95% sure of this, as the other one is completely solid with no gaps in at all. I only doubt myself the 5% as I've never seen one before in the flesh. I really hope I'm wrong. Really.

And yes, looking at my sig, you'll see mine is a '53 plate car. Does this make me the second person in the UK to have the pre-cat problem on a post '03 motor?

GSB · January 30, 2005, 16:15

Go straight to Toyota, Do not pass go, do not collect £200....

You have a defect that requires immediate warranty work, as the missing lump, will undoubtedly have made its way down to the main cat by now, and if it hasnt blocked it already, it soon will...

Tem · January 30, 2005, 16:17

Quote from: "ekona"I'm 95% sure of this, as the other one is completely solid with no gaps in at all. I only doubt myself the 5% as I've never seen one before in the flesh. I really hope I'm wrong. Really.

I'm afraid you're right s:? :? s:? It's supposed to be solid, without any gaps or fractures.
(well, obviously it's actually full of tiny holes)

Anonymous · January 30, 2005, 16:23

I know that's the sensible solution Grant, but what'll they do? I've already spoke to the Service Manager there regarding pre-cats before, and he was of the impression that they don't even exist (!). I can obviously show him now where they are, and what a broken one looks like, but I got the feeling the most they'll do is just change the pre-cats manifold bit for a new one: I really can't see them stripping down the engine to check if anything's gone seriously wrong.

I'll have a quick search through these forums now methinks and see how everyone else has handled it with their dealers. I guess I won't be coming on Sunday after all. s:(

s:(

GSB · January 30, 2005, 16:34

They wont be stripping the engine, and to be frank you dont want them too... But they can get rid of the knackered manifold and change the main cat, Thus preventing your engine from expiring with a terminal bang...

Anonymous · January 31, 2005, 19:55

Right, I'm back on for Sunday! s:D

s:D

Took the car to Mr T. today, and after having a brief and not-very-pleasant chat with the service manager (who told me that the pre-cats are designed to break apart, and that he couldn't tell me if mine was definately on it's way out as he'd never seen a good one!), they're going to replace the pre-cat manifold on Wednesday. He did say that he would replace it under warranty this time, but that he'd never do it again. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it didn't matter as I was going to gut it on Sunday anyway...! s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

The bloke was a complete arse about the whole situation, though. Still, at least if I do have any further problems down the line at least my warranty claim for damaged pre-cats is now logged.

Anonymous · February 1, 2005, 04:38

Quotethe pre-cats are designed to break apart

Well, no harm done then. Eh?

Bongo · February 1, 2005, 11:46

Ekona: I hope you tell the people who ring to ask you how everything went that the service was appalling.

Now moving onto my troubles...

I've been spraying bolts and things for a few days now and thought i'd have a crack at getting the heatshield off today.

First problem is the bolts on the top of the heatshield are very rusty and seem to crumble with the touch of a finger, didn't dare to touch them with any sort of tool.

Second the left hand O2 sensor may very well already be cross threaded (as previously thought) as it didn't seem to want to move (although it could be down to a crap wrench as it seemed to slip, but i don't think the O2 should need that much force).

Sorry if I seem like a complete mechanical womble, it's because I am s:o

s:o pps:

My limited knowledge makes me think this is a pretty hopeless situation (especially with the O2 sensor) - am i right?

Tem · February 1, 2005, 12:25

Quote from: "Bongo"First problem is the bolts on the top of the heatshield are very rusty and seem to crumble with the touch of a finger, didn't dare to touch them with any sort of tool.

Second the left hand O2 sensor may very well already be cross threaded (as previously thought) as it didn't seem to want to move (although it could be down to a crap wrench as it seemed to slip, but i don't think the O2 should need that much force).

The heatshield bolts itself are probably just fine, though they might have some surface rust. It has a weird "plate" under it that makes the crumbling feeling.

The O2 sensors are very tight, even if they are on properly...
(pretty impossible to guess if they are cross threaded)

Anonymous · February 1, 2005, 20:14

Bongo
Had the same problem with the heat-shield bolts, only 1 broke and I managed to drill that out with just a normal bit. Must admit they don't feel that strong

Anonymous · February 1, 2005, 21:01

I'd love to come and have mine removed, if only it were somewhere nearer - anyone in the NE of the country fancy helping me remove mine? s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Here's a question for those who know what they're doing - is it possible for me to check the pre-cats without removing the manifold? I don't have the tool for removing the 02 sensors, so if there's a way of checking them without removing these sensors, any advice would be gratefully received... I'd really like to have a look at them, just to check that they're still intact.

mrsmr2 · February 1, 2005, 21:07

Grant

Didn't you say that you new car was really loud (whiney) since you had de-catted the car? Did you sort out what was causing it?

Jason

markiii · February 1, 2005, 22:41

Quote from: "lordretsudo"I'd love to come and have mine removed, if only it were somewhere nearer - anyone in the NE of the country fancy helping me remove mine? s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Here's a question for those who know what they're doing - is it possible for me to check the pre-cats without removing the manifold? I don't have the tool for removing the 02 sensors, so if there's a way of checking them without removing these sensors, any advice would be gratefully received... I'd really like to have a look at them, just to check that they're still intact.

If not removing teh manifold, or teh 02 sensors, the only way to inspect them is by dropping teh main cat pipe and looking up into teh manifold

heathstimpson · February 2, 2005, 07:06

Actually got both heat shields off shearing any bolts s:wink: :wink: s:wink: Must spray it up before the weekend decat meet.
Note: I removed my O2 sensors using a spanner from underneath when the top heat shield was loose. They can also be disconnected from the plugs. I only had to remove one as the shield can be manouvered around the other with the plug disconnected s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Anonymous · February 2, 2005, 09:21

s:cry: :cry: s:cry: I'm scared about this whole thing! I have no mechanical expertise to talk off - it took me about 3 hours to fit the Apexi to our '2!

I'll be there Sunday - I'll be the one with a puzzled look on his face.

Can anybody get hold of the two gaskets I need to replace? If someone could get a pair for me I'd be grateful?

PM me!

Jono

markiii · February 2, 2005, 10:03

ok guys we are now up to 8 definate attendees, so I suggest we stop there if we are to get them all done in a day.

please comesuitabley dressed to get your hands dirty as we are going to need a team efort to get through 8 manifolds in one day.

thanks,

Mark.

Liz · February 2, 2005, 10:39

Going to be like a production line, I will take some piccies to post s:)

s:)