My pre-cats are damaged - what do I do now?

[Anonymous]

Bad news...

I checked my pre-cats last night for the first time and discovered that one of the them is badly damaged.

I'm going to take photos of it today and submit them to this forum. I would like to have your opinions on how bad it looks.

To me, it's unfortunately more than just big cracks. Some ceramic matter has clearly disappeared (probably part of it into cylinders 2 and 3 of my engine!!) There is also some white particle deposits visible in the tail pipe.

My oil consumption is also greater than normal (although it is not yet producing any smoke and is still within "reasonable limits" 1.5 l / 3000m). There is also a slight grinding sound coming from the engine.

The car is over its 3 year warranty period (and Toyota do not offer any extended warranties in Switzerland  s:( s:(   ).

What should I do now?

Obviously, I should not use the car anymore with the pre-cats in that state, things can only get worse.

I don't want to gut the warm-up cats yet either because there may be already damage to the engine, and I would be destroying "evidence".

Should I get an independent expert out to check the engine (state of the pre-cats, cylinder compression test, etc.) ??

I currently work for the Swiss automobile club, and feel like using them to put pressure on Toyota. The problem is that there isn't that many MR2 Roadsters here and there is a lack of statistical evidence to put pressure on them regarding this problem.

On top of everything, I've just finished swapping my gearbox with a J-spec/US-spec C56 gearbox that I'm just dying to try out!!!! Aaarrrghh!

Any ideas on how to best approach this problem?

Cheers,

John

[Tem]

The car is over its 3 year warranty period (and Toyota do not offer any extended warranties in Switzerland  s:( s:(   ).

Contact Toyota anyway. Let them know this is a very common problem, print all the articles from here/SC. Mine blew after the warranty, but Toyota agreed to fix it for free.

If they don't cover it, just get rid of the precats and hope for best. Maybe you caught it in time... Also take the main cat off the car and shake it a bit to get the broken parts off the pipe.

If all else fails, new (used) engines aren't that much. Just swap a new one in there, it's cheaper than repairing the old one. Or take the opportunity to get a 2ZZ or MWR big bore kit  s;) s;)

[markiii]

How cheap can you get a new engine out there?

might not  be worth the aggro of fightinh toyota if your not in warranty.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your quick replies.

I've contacted our Legal Assistance department this morning and just got a reply from them: They said they could provide me with an independent expert that can inspect the car and produce an official report that could be used (I guess together with a letter from the lawyers) to put pressure on Toyota.

They said I need to describe the problem and collect a maximum amount of evidence to document the issue with the warm-up CATs.

Has someone already collected or prepared a "file" or documented statistics, testimonies, etc. regarding pre-cat failure on the MR2?

(I also feel that something coming from an MR2 club would have more "weight" that printouts from a topic on an internet forum. Could the MR2 Roadster Owners Club send me some documents on the subject directly through e-mail or post to make it more "official")

Cheers

[Tem]

Has someone already collected or prepared a "file" or documented statistics, testimonies, etc. regarding pre-cat failure on the MR2?

Yes, check some of the stickys in SC:
 m http://spyderchat.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=6 m

If you want to browse the area more, you'll find more detailed descriptions of individual cases.

[heathstimpson]

I've contacted our Legal Assistance department this morning and just got a reply from them: They said they could provide me with an independent expert that can inspect the car and produce an official report that could be used (I guess together with a letter from the lawyers) to put pressure on Toyota.

That would be useful to get  s:) s:)