Waiting

Emperoh:
Gurus in the house,

I have been noticing of late, increasing cases of failed catalysts and clogged CCs of late. In fact i have witnessed 3 cases in the last three weeks or less. First time I experienced this was with my brother's 2003 VW Passat; in 2012. Unit almost caught fire on the highway.

Can we discuss this and find out possible causes and probably preventive maintenance techniques to adopt to prevent this.

One of the main causes i know is the poor quality fuel we use in Nigeria, which has very high lead content. The lead degrades the catalysts and also poisons most 02 sensors causing sensor failure.

But I do love to hear from the experts.

Gazzuzz, Kingreign, Piyke, Bravolad, Siena Cecegorz, Ikenna can we all jawjaw on this?

Anything issue or condition that will make your car to run too lean or too rich will definitely destroy your catalyst.
That is the essence why car manufacturer design your engine computer through the close loop strategy to always seeking to achieve stoic condition (14.7:1) which is the ideal condition to maintain your catalyst.
Which why we always advocate against running your fan direct and removing thermostat ,that crude practice will eventually destroy your catalyst as your are perpetually enriching your car mixture .
Average Nigerian car owners lack preventive maintance culture and only believe in changing of engine oil when due but will fail to perform routine tune-up which is part of preventive maintance e.g changing your spark plug when due,servicing your throttle body etc .Failure to do this regularly will make your car to run lean as well and this also will have cause serous issue for the catalyst.

honmusa:

Anything issue or condition that will make your car to run too lean or too rich will definitely destroy your catalyst.
That is the essence why car manufacturer design your engine computer through the close loop strategy to always seeking to achieve stoic condition (14.7:1) which is the ideal condition to maintain your catalyst.
Which why we always advocate against running your fan direct and removing thermostat ,that crude practice will eventually destroy your catalyst as your are perpetually enriching your car mixture .
Average Nigerian car owners lack preventive maintance culture and only believe in changing of engine oil when due but will fail to perform routine tune-up which is part of preventive maintance e.g changing your spark plug when due,servicing your throttle body etc .Failure to do this regularly will make your car to run lean as well and this also will have cause serous issue for the catalyst.

Noted.

Emperoh:
Gurus in the house,

I have been noticing of late, increasing cases of failed catalysts and clogged CCs of late. In fact i have witnessed 3 cases in the last three weeks or less. First time I experienced this was with my brother's 2003 VW Passat; in 2012. Unit almost caught fire on the highway.

Can we discuss this and find out possible causes and probably preventive maintenance techniques to adopt to prevent this.

One of the main causes i know is the poor quality fuel we use in Nigeria, which has very high lead content. The lead degrades the catalysts and also poisons most 02 sensors causing sensor failure.

But I do love to hear from the experts.

Gazzuzz, Kingreign, Piyke, Bravolad, Siena Cecegorz, Ikenna can we all jawjaw on this?

Thanks Honmusa for the lucid reply.

I just want to stress on the impact of running rich. If you have a flashing check engine light, its not something to ignore. A flashing CEL means a misfire so bad that unburned fuel in getting to the catalytic converter is occurring. The unburned fuel will raise the temperature of the CC above limits leading to melting of the internal honeycomb structure of the CC and subsequent blockage.

They are a couple other things that degrade CCs. I did a detailed post on sometime back; www.diyautoworksng.com/things-that-damage-catalytic-converters/

One of the quickest way is through a misfire. A misfire on one or more cylinders of the car is very hazardous to the catalytic converter. Another practice comes from our road side panel beater their heating pattern. If you ask a panel beater to check if your CC is well intact rather than take the cat pot out he prefers to create a small hole on the side and use a tiny metal to confirm. This practice also causes a cat to go bad in time .