Pre Cats Again

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 14:24

Hi Nice to join you.
Well I just had a look at my pre cats having read all your posts, the RH cat is OK but the LH is breaking up. Some of the square cells are joining up to form bigger oblong cells. As I understand it the options are, do nothing and wait for the bang. Gut the pre cats and loose warranty or buy a TRD manifold and stay in warranty. The car is May 03 with 17K miles so still well in warranty. Does anyone know to what degree warranty is lost if you gut the cats i.e is the engine warranty lost or is it just manifold and cats?

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 14:56

Hi Peter:

Would there be a 3rd option of take it to your dealer and ask them to inspect the pre-cats?

From other posts I have read, I would do this sooner rather than later. IT seems like a better option than waiting for the inevitable oil loss, because Toyota seem to like replacing the cats first, rather than accepting that a new short engine is required. Seems to often result in being car-less for quite some time.

That said, I haven't looked at mine and I probably won't actually get round to it, until the warranty is near-expired,

hth
Andy

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 14:57

anyone know the price of new pre-cat chambers?

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 15:13

I phoned our local Mr T who said "quote" you should not take out the O2 sensors to check the cats, you will void the warranty! I explained that one pre cat was breaking up, they said that if the car was not making a strange noise and no engine lights were on Toyota would not do anything. It was all a bit of a waste of time, the overall message was Good Morning go away and bring it back when its broken.

MRMike · September 22, 2004, 15:13

Hi Peter,

I was told by two dealers that removing the precats would effect the "powertrain" warranty. I have also been told that using a TRD header will also invalidate the warranty. I was unfortunate that my precats went at 6000 miles on a brand new car. I only had the precats replaced, and my engine is great, now done 12,000 miles and no problems (touch wood)

When you take the car to Toyota make sure you get the main cat checked as well.(as per advice on this forum)

What syptoms has your car got? If it has none, you will probably have a ahard time convincing Toyota about the problem, as they seemingly won't aknowlege a problem. And they're likely to say well if it's not doing anything wrong there is no problem. Don't let them tell you otherwise and push them to replace the precats.

Good luck with this Peter!

Just seen your reply above Peter, I thought that is what they might say. I'd get them to check you pre cats compared to another car. I would say take in some pics of here of a cracked precat, but Toyota seemingly don't listen to anything that comes from the web in my experience. Might be wortha go though!

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 15:22

so the pre-cats come under the drive-train warranty? isnt that 6 years?

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 15:40

Quote from: "Tomr2"drive-train warranty? isnt that 6 years?

Not as far as I know. 3 years for mechanical and paintwork, 12 for anti-corrosion.

SimonC_Here · September 22, 2004, 15:56

Just got a call from MRT for me to go and pick up my repaired car. s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

New short block and stuff (technical ain't I s:)

s:) ).

Did it under Manufactures warranty in the end after lots of wrangling.

Tomr2: Precats come in the manifold, replaced as a whole. No idea on price though.

As always, keep checking your oil. If it starts to go at an alarming rate, head straight for MrT. Don't wait for the lights!

Simon

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 17:25

Quote from: "SimonC_Here"Just got a call from MRT for me to go and pick up my repaired car. s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

New short block and stuff (technical ain't I s:) s:) ).

Did it under Manufactures warranty in the end after lots of wrangling.

Tomr2: Precats come in the manifold, replaced as a whole. No idea on price though.

As always, keep checking your oil. If it starts to go at an alarming rate, head straight for MrT. Don't wait for the lights!

Simon

That's excellent news Simon! Really glad to hear that my virtual neighbour's '2 that I still haven't seen (car or neighbour!) is back on the road and that Toyota finally did the decent thing. I reckon we should have a Kent meeting in the Walnut Tree to celebrate. (Probably should continue by PM!)
Cheers!
Andy

Anonymous · September 22, 2004, 19:39

Can anyone tell me if the engine has any other known problems because I am seriously thinking that I will gut the pre cats and take the chance on not needing the balance of warrenty.

GSB · September 22, 2004, 20:02

Quote from: "Peter Weeks"Can anyone tell me if the engine has any other known problems because I am seriously thinking that I will gut the pre cats and take the chance on not needing the balance of warrenty.

Check out the sticky topic at the top of the maintenace forum for a run-down on known faults and problems...

Tem · September 23, 2004, 06:13

Quote from: "Tomr2"anyone know the price of new pre-cat chambers?

You can buy the pre-cat chambers, you have to buy the whole manifold. Over here it was more than the TRD header, so the choice should be easy, if you ever have to buy one yourself s8)

s8)

Anonymous · September 27, 2004, 11:26

Quote from: "Peter Weeks"Can anyone tell me if the engine has any other known problems because I am seriously thinking that I will gut the pre cats and take the chance on not needing the balance of warrenty.

If my car had still been under warranty when I checked and discovered that my pre-cats were going south, I would have asked a (good) Toyota dealer to check them (on the basis of what several MR2 clubs have reported -- not mentioning web sites, etc.)

I doubt that any half serious mechanic who would have seen the state of my pre-cats (cracks, partial desintegration), would have been happy to let me continue driving the car in that condition... It could only have got even worse, until debris clogged up the main cat and warped the engine.

I know that my mechanic was only a little bit concerned that he had never heard of that problem before (he would have had to justify why he was looking there in the first place)...

I would definitely start by asking a dealer to check out the state of the pre-cats and make a report. That would probably put enough pressure on them to consider replacing the exhaust manifold...

Anonymous · September 27, 2004, 11:29

Quote from: "Peter Weeks"car is May 03 with 17K miles

That just goes to show that the pre-cat problem still hasn't been resolved ... (I thought it only affected '00-'01 models!)

Anonymous · September 27, 2004, 11:35

Hmm,

Checked my oil level yesterday and it's dropped by about 1/3 in a couple of weeks and i havn't done that much driving. maybe its the cold weather. I'm having an exhaust fitted soon i'll get the mechanic to check it over,

If it blows it's gotta do it before warranty runs out.