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Toyota Camry Check Engine Light - Catalytic Converter

150 messages,  Last post on Oct 31, 2012 at 8:23 AM

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What is this discussion about? Toyota Camry, Sedan

Messages Page 13 of 16

#119 of 150 Alternative solution to catalytic converter replacement by jziarko

Feb 16, 2011 (9:06 am)

i have a 2003 camry with about 138K miles on it and had a similar cycle with the check engine light on and off by itself for a few years. same symptoms with the winter months and driving long distances etc etc... inspection time was a stressful part of every year.
 
anyways, the car had recently gotten much louder so i worried something was wrong with my muffler too so i took it to toyota to get a diagnostic. the verdict was both front and rear catalytic converters needed to be replaced and it would cost about $1900 to fix. they also confirmed there was a hole in my muffler which was causing it to run loud.
 
thankfully i have a friend who used to work at a dealership so i asked him to take a look at my diagnostic before i got the repairs. he gave me a possible explanation and but warned me that it was a long shot. he said that the hole in my muffler could cause the rear catalytic converter to misread since some of the exhaust would be leaking out of the system improperly. The dealership was just seeing the error code and telling me to replace it without really thinking about the problem. And since one converter was failing (that was 8 yrs old), they could tell me the other would need replacing too since it is also 8 yrs old and probably on its way out. anyways i took his advice and replaced my entire exhaust system (cost about $800). check engine light went off and stayed off.

#121 of 150 Re: CEL on long trips [ugajustin] by amyt12

Mar 14, 2011 (12:11 pm)

Replying to: ugajustin (Jan 08, 2011 8:44 am)
I have had very similar issues with CEL coming on 3 times over the past 18 months on 3 of 3 trips from SC to Florida. Each time the light came on at Darien, Georgia. Thought CEL could be due to "long trip", but we have driven on many trips through other states and CEL has not come on. Took car to local shop to read (and clear) code. Mechanic suggested "bad gas," from the same station, but I know we did not stop at the same place twice. My uneducated theory was air pollution being picked up by the sensors. My kids hate that stretch of the drive because it smell so bad. Mechanic thought I was a moron!

#122 of 150 Re: CEL on long trips [amyt12] by ugajustin

Mar 14, 2011 (1:07 pm)

Replying to: amyt12 (Mar 14, 2011 12:11 pm)
Crazy, we haven't had a problem in months until a recent trip to South Georgia. Maybe there is something to your theory, we did not add gas on the trip. The gnat-to-air-to-gas mix may have been out of spec and triggered the light.

#123 of 150 Re: Code P0420 [confused55] by texasjulie

Mar 15, 2011 (1:21 pm)

Replying to: confused55 (Feb 05, 2011 9:12 pm)
Your situation is exactly like mine, at 145k miles. I changed out the O2 sensors and the check engine light went out and I just passed inspection. I googled what the O2 sensors looked like, then found one in the front of the engine and the other just under the front end. It cost me $110 for one, and $125 for the other due to the longer cord to the connector-and I had to buy an 02 socket for $10. When the sensors are fouled, you get a bad reading of Catalytic Converter problems that don't exist-these sensors read Cat problems, but if they don't work they give you bad readings and the check engine light. We unhooked my battery to let the computer restart and it solved a low idle problem I had as well. I hope this helps!

#124 of 150 02 Sensors on 2002 Camry by texasjulie

Mar 15, 2011 (2:01 pm)

The 02 Sensors on the 2002 Camrys go bad in two years (dirty and therefore don't read right and trip the CEL) in my experience. Before anyone buys a new catalytic convertor, replace both for about $250 and see if this doesn't turn the CEL off (until they get gunk on them again in two more years). This worked for me. My CEL has been off and on since the car was two years old. Always a problem when it came time for an inspection. At 142k miles I just changed them and the CEL is off and I passed my 9th inspection without purchasing a new catalytic convertor. A customer in a parts shop suggested this to me, then I found this blog with more info. Thanks a bunch!

#125 of 150 130,000 miles must be magic number.... by retired_xeroid

May 09, 2011 (8:56 pm)

I, too, just had my CEL come on. The culprit is also the catalytic converter and O2 sensor. The price I was quoted was pretty much spot on with the costs mentioned here. My car has 137K on it. I happened to stumble on this forum...glad I did! I appreciate all the imformation everyone provided here. I was all set to cancel my appointment for tomorrow morning, but will keep it. The one item that really caught my eye was having the two O2 sensors replaced at the same time to see if the CEL goes out. I'll have to call the mechanic first thing in the morning. Thank you, all, and keep up the good discussions and information!

#126 of 150 Camry Catalytic Converter by azmustang

May 14, 2011 (8:14 am)

My nephew has a 2006 Camry with a 6 cylinder engine. The car has about 40,000 miles. The engine light had come on, and the cause was determined to be the catalytic converter. Yesterday, our local Toyota dealership replaced the catalytic converter under warranty at no cost.
The diagnosis was that the catalytic converter was inoperable. My curiosity is why would the catalytic converter fail at 40,000 miles? Is it inherent in the way that Toyota specs the manufacturer of these converters? Is it something in the function of the engine exhausts or computer?
I work for a firm that has a fleet of 4 Chevrolet HHR's. They have mileages of 115,000, 136,000, 145,000 and 208,000. As far as I know, none has had a catalytic converter problem.
This is not my first experience with Camry catalytic converter issues. I had a 2001 4 cylinder Camry which required replacement of the catalytic converter at about 100,000 miles. Replacement was necessary because the pipe in front of the converter had rusted and broke.
Not knowing then what I know now, my mechanic replaced it with a non-Toyota after market converter. The engine light came back on, and I was looking at substantial costs ahead of me (front converter, replacing rear converter with Toyota converter) and I decided to cut my losses and trade it in.
Based on people's experiences with Camrys around the 2006 model year, is my nephew going to be looking at converter failures every 40,000 miles? Needless to say, the converter
is not under warranty forever.
Thank you for whatever input that you may have.

#127 of 150 PZEV Camry Catalytic Convertor 15yrs/150,000 warranty in NY by saminny

Jan 30, 2012 (12:55 pm)

       Hi, I have a 2005 PZEV (partial zero emission vehicle- California emission standard) Toyota Camry 4-cylinder in New York, and at 82K the check engine light came on with the Code P0420; upon checking it with my local mechanic I was told that I require a new front catalytic convertor. I contacted few dealers to check if it was under warranty but was told that the warranty for the catalytic convertor is 8 years/80,000 miles (which is the Federal emission warranty). I started googling for the warranty information (unfortunately my pre-owned camry does not have the warranty information hand book) and on few forums found out that for PZEV Honda the warranty is 15years/150,000 miles. I then went to the Toyota customer service website (http://toyota.custhelp.com/) and placed an inquiring about the warranty for the Cat. I got a reply from Toyota about 2 weeks later confirming that the warranty on my Camry is 15 years/150,000 miles because it is a PZEV Camry in New York. Below is the paragraph from the email I received from Toyota.
 
       “For Camry PZEV vehicles, (Partial Zero Emission Vehicles), the applicable warranty for the catalytic converter is extended to 15 years or 150,000 miles for vehicles operated in a state that has adopted California Emissions Coverage. New York adopted this guideline for the 2005 model year and your catalytic converter would be covered for this longer time frame.”
 
       Following weekend I went to the closest Toyota dealer in my area and gave him the copy of the email I received from Toyota and asked him to check his books for the warranty on the Cat. After arguing with him for few minutes he was able to find the paragraph in his manual (which I did not see) which stated this extended warranty for PZEV camry for 15 years/150,000 miles. He then told me I would need to pay diagnostic charges and if its indeed the Cat then the charges will be waived. I asked him to go ahead with fingers crossed and went home. 3 hours later I got a call from the dealer confirming my Cat needs replacement and that he has ordered one and will let me know when it has arrived for me to have it replaced .
    
       So for those of you who want to delay future cost on Catalytic convertor problem with Toyota, my advise is get a California emission vehicle IF AND ONLY IF your state has adopted California emission standard. That way you are covered for 15 years/150,000 miles.

#128 of 150 Noise in Camry 2003 Engine by aasante

Feb 15, 2012 (11:25 am)

Hello,
 
I've been having some noise coming from my engine. The car has only 54850 miles on it. It sounded like it was coming from the exhaust but when an exhaust specialist checked he told me it was from the engine and advised me to take it to the dealership.
 
The dealership couldn't diagnose the problem either but told me that it could be from the intake manifold. They wanted to take the engine apart to be certain but then I wouldn't be able to drive the car. They didn't know how much it was going to cost me but when I insisted on an estimate they said it would cost me close to $1500.00. I thought that wasn't good enough since they didn't know exactly what the problem was. I have since gone to 2 other mechanics who couldn't tell me what the problem is. The last one said it could be from the timing chain being loose.
 
A few times when I've driven the car for sometime I don't hear the noise but most of the time it's there; I've had this noise for about a year or so now.
 
At this point I don't know what to believe. Has anyone had this problem? Any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Messages Page 13 of 16

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