DAYTA

Before I had my S/C installed last year, my RT cat had already been on my car for over a year. At that point, I had 10k miles on it with zero issues (I never even triggered a CEL once).

After adding the S/C, my cat lasted less than a year before it was essentially blown out. The honeycomb filter was still intact, but it became dislodged and was rattling around the pipe. Most likely, this separation was due to the fact that running considerably richer with the S/C caused the cat to deteriorate exponentially faster. From what I hear, the S/Ced TL guys also go through cats fairly often. What this means is that if you have a S/C (or plan to get one) and drive it hard like I do, be prepared to either add a test pipe or replace your cat every year.

Because I didn't want to deal with the negative side-effects of running a test pipe (i.e. increased raspiness/noise, smell of gasoline), I had a new RT cat installed by Josh from Excelerate and the car runs better now (not that it was bad before). I can't tell if it's actually more powerful since it was also pretty cold yesterday, but power delivery is definitely smoother than before. I've also gotten rid of that rattle which was starting to get on my nerves.



To all you other S/C owners...have you noticed any issues with your cat?

godfather2

not a s/c owner but i'm on my second rt cat as well. that annoying rattle you speak of drove me crazy for weeks ... apparently i hit the cat going over a bump. then, after my accident, it was replaced by insurance

Tsx536

Yep, I've went through one RT Cat already. I ended up going back to my stock cat. I think you're right Dayta, it's definitely because of the running more rich with the SC setup. There is more gas in the mixture when you run rich and from what I've heard that can raise the exhaust temperatures causing the element on the inside to get heated up and shrink. Some of the RSX guys running the SC, usually end up going with a race header and eliminating the Cat completely.

Excelerate

iTrader: (1)

On most N/A applications the RT cat will last the life of the car. In S/Ced applications, esp with the CT setup, where the car runs fairly rich you will cause the cat to deteriorate more quickly. Dayta also is running water/meth which also exacerbates the problem.