jkim390

Hi all!

Before driving back down from my university for spring break (~200 miles) last week, I noticed that my air intake boot ripped along the accordion portion. I ordered a new boot and replaced the part, cleaned the throttle body, and decided to clean the MAP sensor yesterday. Started the car only to realize that I forgot to plug the MAP sensor back in, throwing a CEL. Took out the battery, plugged the MAP sensor back in and everything was fine afterwards (no sluggish behavior and no lights on dash).

The CEL came on after driving 27 miles today. No loss of power and the engine's running fine (no different sounds or behavior). Plugged in the obd2 and pulled a P0420 (Catalytic Converter below threshold). Would anything that I did possibly cause my catalytic converter to go bad? My guess would be starting the car without plugging the MAP sensor back in, but I would like some input from others before taking it to the shop.

If important: 2005 TL 6MT with roughly 221,000 miles. Thank you all!

truonghthe

Without MAP sensor your car can't tell how much fuel to cut back or adding extra. Your car probably ran rich which trigger the code for CAT issue, erase the code and continue to drive and see if P0420 come back. IF it come back check your down stream O2 sensors.

jkim390

Truong,
That's what my plan was as well. I figured that because I ran the car for a bit without the MAP plugged in, I clogged up the cat causing it to throw the code. That being said, I have been recommended to run a can of seafoam through my gas tank but based on other aziner's posts it seems like its a hit or miss.

If the P0420 does come back, do you think it's okay to drive ~200 miles back to my uni? Leaving relatively soon so I'd wanna verify to make sure its okay to drive before anything

truonghthe

You can drive fine even with the P0420 but don't drive it like very long period (like 3 months or more) as bad O2 sensor will eventually kill your CAT.