I need some advice please:

Its a 2000 Honda Accord 4cly auto 396,000 km. It's been running good for a while now but in the last two weeks it has started throwing code P0420 and now P1399. It has a rattle coming from inside the catalytic converter. You can hear it at idle. i cleared the codes and they just came right back. Today my wife reports that it had no power on a hill so she floored it and it revved up and made no power and would not up shift at the top of the hill. I checked the fluids when she got home. All good. Checked codes again P0420 and P1399. I cleared them.

I test drove it tonight and when I started at the bottom of a hill from a dead stop with it floored it did not want to up shift and made little power. It threw a code and bucked when up shifting. I brought it home put it on axle stands. I poked around the heat shield and cat. It sounds to me like the catalytic converter has loose material inside. It is not coming from the heat shields and does not sound tinny like a loose heat shield.

I think the material inside the catalytic converter has fallen apart and is blocking the exhaust causing low power.

Does that sound right? I'm consdiering a new cat and the muffler is shot too! Kind of wondering if its time to retire it (I have a 2001 with 150,000 km standing by)

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

 

It sounds like your catalytic converter is your problem.

Not sure if something else is going on in the engine that caused your catalyst in the converter to break apart. Did you noticed any loss in gas mileage before you had codes popping up?

 

It has burned a liter of oil or two between oil chnages since I bought it at 160,000 km. Over the last couple of years it has fouled fuel injectors and thrown misfire codes. I took them out and soaked and cleaned them. I finally replaced with a full set of brand new injectors and haven't had any issues since.

Also this may sound strange but when the car is off it will make a mooing sound intermittently for about 8 hours after it has been run. It has done that for a long time and many people have commented about our mooing cow. I suspect it is in the emissions system. Leaking vacuum or pressure.

No I don't really think anything led to the cats failure other than age and mileage. almost 400,000 km. and 17 years old on factory exhaust.

thanks

jeff

 

oh and it's losing about a half liter of coolant a year. I replaced the rad hoses a couple of years ago and had to change the fitting where the upper rad hose joins the engine. It was a corroded and leaking to the outside of the engine. No oil in antifreeze or antifreeze in oil that I can see.

 

Yes, what is happening is parts of the converter material is breaking up and clogging the muffler. On another forum, a guy had the exact same problem (minus the 1399 code), and found his muffler was clogged too. He replaced the cat, and opened up the muffler to find the cat material inside it (plugging the outlet). Once he got that cleaned up, it was good to go.
I don't know what the P1399 code is right off hand, so I'll have to look it up, or wait for someone else to reply to it.

 

Just for information- P1399 is a "pending"/temporary misfire code

 

Thanks. In his case it might be a partly clogged exhaust causing the code.

 

Thanks guys.
I have a cat and muffler on order from Rock Auto.
Ill update when it's fixed. I am quite confident that a cat would fix it but the muffler could be plugged and its outer layer peeled off a month or so ago and it should start leaking soon anyway.

Jeff

 

I pulled the cat and muffler last night and found the cat was blown out with 3 or four softball sized pieces left inside "floating". It's surprising that it was running at all! They are the perfect size and shape to plug off the exhaust.

I pulled the entire exhaust out from under the car to make sure the (resonator??) and exhaust pipe were not full of cat material too. Today I will install a new cat and muffler and bolt it all back together.

I wont be able to report on the final result because I transferred my insurance onto our newer 2001 Honda Accord. I am certain however that the cat was the reason for the check engine light and codes.