OK, with the hesitation and weirdness I have been getting lately with my '01 SS I thought the problem was transmission. Repair guy says tranny is OK, but catalytic converter is clogged.
QUESTIONS: Does that sound reasonable? What would cause that to happen? Could a small evap leak contribute to that?
In an old post, somebody mentioned a warranty good for 100K on this part. Car has about 85 K. Any idea if that warranty would still be good? I am the third owner.
What's one of these old cat. converters going for these days? Must be something, people are stealing them like crazy around here.

Thanks!

 

Yes it's very possible that is the problem. Typically they go bad if the car isn't running well / running too rich.

You are way outside of the extended warranty of emissions related parts. At most they go for 8 years.

 

Its certainly possible. Hard to tell without actually driving thr car / measuring cat temps.

Lots of potential causes. Contamination is one, simple mechanical breakdown of the structure is another.

I wouldnt think so. Drawinga little bit of ambient air through the evap system woudlnt skew fueling enough that the trims couldn't compensate.

I belive the Federal requirement is 8 yrs/ 80k. Even if Chevy went with something longer, youre still likely way out on age alone.

That's about where my 03 Impala cat died - although we were a bit closer to 100k if I remember right.

Likely not a huge amount. Youll notice the cars they're hitting are generally targeted due to especially high values- certain hybrids and larger trucks.

Back when ZZP used to buy back your old cat with a downpipe purchase they were giving $50 + shipping back to them. Even if they were doubling their money, its not going to be enough to cover a new replacement cat.

 

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it!
Whatever the old cat is worth, it's better than a kick in the head.

 

Cat that is plugged will stall the Car they will start okay but have no get up and go.
A simpler issue is a Vacuum leak, you might want to check on that as well . You would hate to have the Cat changed and then find out that might not be the issue.
On another scale of not running issues on my sons MC back in the early 2002 he was struggling to keep it running and asked me what the problem was?
I found the Vac line to the brake booster was off slightly and once I put it back everything was good to go.
On other vehicles I have had the Vac line had a crack in it near the connection and after I repaired that it was good.

 

Thanks for the info. Will try to remember for future reference.
It seems that this was the cat, probably caused by a bad O2 sensor. Had both replaced, car running nicely now.

In other news, I found a place that buys used cats right here in VT, claims to be the biggest buyer in the country. He also buys 02 sensors, but I didn't find that out until too late. I'll keep you folks posted on what I get for the used cat. Won't be until next week or the week after though. Unfortunately I won't get as much as I could because the pipe was cut in the wrong place. Oh well, live and learn.