2004 TL, 56K miles. 1 week ago my check engine light came on; brought it into the dealer, they told me it was my catalytic converter rusting due to my short commutes everyday (approx 8-10 miles/day) and it not being able to clear the exhaust. They quoted me $950 to replace, this really stinks b/c I'm just outside of my warranty. Plus, even if I do replace it, I'm going to be doing the same wear/tear to it! Suppose I decide upgrade my exhuast system (does that include the catalytic converter?), how much would that set me back? Is it normal for this to happen to the catalytic converter? Please help!

 

not sure if that is normal wear, but I would highly suggest changing out to the E-Shift Pro Cats from excellerate here, they are 1300 shipped and there are 3 of them for all 3 that may go bad. They are high quality, improve MPG and also improve performance about 21 WHP.

 

Due to FED requirements- smog components- cats included, have a MUCH longer warranty than the rest of the car
Call acura at 1-800-382-2238x5 and open a claim
If you were talking to a service writer- their job is to extract money from you
When you talk with the Service MANAGER you can get real info
It always helps to know the warranty before you go in- they deal with a lot of cars and cant be expected to know everything- sometimes anything!!

you're putting the national average 15 to 20k per year on your car
If your commute were 1 mile, then I would say take the car for a drive once a week
sounds like a good story though- have to give props for that!!

 

I agree with 01tl4tl, in fact, I pulled up the warranty on the catalytic converter which is 8 years or 80,000 miles. Here's a link to the PDF from Acura.

You're definitely still under warranty and should not be paying out of pocket for this. It does say that it's covered when "registered and normally operated" but I can't find anyway they could claim you didn't operate the vehicle normally. A job that's 8 - 10 miles away (whether round trip or one way), is far from outside of 'normal'. I know plenty of people that work within 10 miles of their home.

Good luck and keep us posted...

 

Agree with above

...Jeez..aren't dealers assholes?

 

registered means street licensed vehicle-
not an off road use or track only car.
A regular acura street car with plates

outside of normal- would be if used as a taxi- race car- towed a boat in the mountains every weekend or other extreme behavior

In the book there are suggestions for low daily miles drivers, and again, if you had 10k on it after 3-4 years....but you are warranty no sweat

Speak with the SERVICE MANAGER

Let them know the writer needs some further edumacatin on the subject of FEDERAL emissions warranty
and walk in with the printout listed above
Thanks to the members who know where to find documents!

 

For those with other ~emission related items failure~
read up on whats covered- pretty much everything to do with smog control-
I believe it even covers O2 sensors!

 

hey, thanks everyone, esp 01tl4tl and steve9207, my acura dealer actually called me today and told me they neglected to tell me about the warranty. i'm bringing my car in wednesday to have it changed out. the remaining question though is, since according to them i have a short commute, should i let the car run for a few minutes after reaching my destination, push the gas pedal a few times to flush the exhaust?

 

The only way to prevent this is to drive it longer. It needs to get hot to burn the moisture out of the system. Idling does nothing but make more moisture and more problems. Idling is the worst thing you can do to an engine for many reasons.

 

30 minute drive is what it takes to dry everything out
Do that once a week and dont sweat it

 

Did your dealer call you without your prodding? Kudos to them if they did.

Sorry, I just don't buy this short drive thing. Your car is an '04 with 56,000 miles or about 14,000 miles per year or 1,200 miles per month or 40 miles per day. Seems plenty to get the cat above 212 degrees where water vaporizes. Isn't this all that should be needed? Once it vaporizes, won't it be exhausted like any other gas in the system? (a gallon of gasoline produces about 10,000 liters of exhaust gas, at 20 mpg that's 500 liters per mile, at 60 mph that's 500 liters per minute: seems like plenty of exhaust to clear out any water vapor...)

In any case, don't cats operate in excess of 400 deg? and don't they reach temperature in just a few minutes? (try touching one after moving your car into the garage to do an oil change.)

 

chuck- special ed math doesnt help when the actual miles driven per day is 10 as stated, thats not 40 per day average
Cars need to be drivin 30 minutes on the freeway to get fully hot- read the owner manual

And always remember- service writers are just salesman.....with all the inherent precautions taken to protect yourself-- you should be fine!

 

Care to elaborate on the "special ed" comment? Should I take offense?

 

Unfortunately, O2 sensors aren't covered (yes, they excluded the emission-related component that fails the most frequently)