About two years ago, I had the catalytic converter in my car replaced at a Midas car repair shop; the check engine light had been on and it needed to pass inspection.
Recently, the light came on again, and I decided to take the car to the official dealership mechanic. I was surprised when he told me that Midas had put in the wrong catalytic converter in the first place; it’s the wrong size, the wrong one for the car, and he’s surprised that the check engine light hasn’t been on since it was installed.
Here’s the thing - I had this done at a Midas back when I was living on the east coast, and I don’t have the receipt anymore.
What can I do?
I think that they should replace it for free, since they gave me the wrong thing in the first place, so it’s immaterial how long it’s been. Do they have records in their computers of me having been there and having had work done, even though I don’t have the receipt?
How would you handle this - call the original store and explain the situation to the mouth-breathing mechanic? Go right to some sort of chain-wide corporate hotline?
Start with walking into your local midas early on Tuesday afternoon. They shouldn’t be busy, and you can, calmly, explain your situation with the shop manager.
Don’t get confrontational, don’t get angry, just lay it out on the table and see what they offer.
They’re a chain for a reason, and that can help you here. Your small problem may just get fixes and swept under the rug as the cost of doing business. You may also find there’s a warrantee and at most, you’ll pay a percentage for a new one based on the age of the old one.
Further, they sell generic catalytic converters for most every car made. It’s a chemical reaction, and aside from the dimensions and flow, all have exactly the same guts. Occasionally, though, bad parts happen and you may have one now.
Lastly, you may additionally want to take the repaired car to the dealership and make sure there isn’t something ELSE causing premature mortality in your cats. Running a lot of unburnt fuel past a cat will cause it to fail.
One other thought - some vehicles have more than one cat. They have a big one that takes longer to heat up and do it’s job, and a smaller pup-cat that lights off quick and helps cold start emissions. Make sure they didn’t remove one or the other during the first repair, if your car had one stock.
The Feds take emissions VERY SERIOUSLY and will look down on shops that bypass those factory systems, either intentionally or due to stupidity.
But there’s no reason a good shop can’t provide you with a generic replacement that works as well as stock.
Sounds to me the dealer wants to sell you their much more expensive factory replacement piece then the one size fits all converter put on by Midas. I would find out why the check engine light came on in the first place before blaming Midas. I installed a universal replacement cat on my Toyota pickup 3 years ago and have had zero problems with it.
I have seen actual cases posted by pros where a factory cat was replaced in an effort to get a car that was just over the emissions limit to pass emissions and the tail pipe emissions went up So when I see emission test results that a cat with 100,000 miles on it allowed less crap into the air than a brand new replacement, I feel safe in saying not all cat internals are the same.
Now back to the OP. Yes Midas put a generic replacement on. It may or may not be adequate for the job. There is no information about what car this is, or what caused the check engine light.
If the car in question is not OBDII certified the check engine light is in no way connected to what type of cat is on the car, since there is no rear O2 sensor.
If the car is OBDII certified then the code may be related to the cat, or it may not. Assuming that the code is cat related, could this just be a failure of a cheap cat? Yes. Could this have been caused by another problem in the engine? Yes. How can you tell? By proper diagnostic work preformed by a professional. Sorry but nobody can diagnose this over the net.
[Rant mode] Some of the flat out worst repairs I have ever seen have come from Midas. Also some of the worst over selling I have ever seen has also come from Midas. If I were to go to Midas for a muffler repair, (not bloody likely BTW) I would put one hand over my family jewels, and the other over my wallet. I am not a fan of Midas.[/rant mode]
I have anecdotal evidence that says just the opposite…in the end, it’s just anecdotal evidence.
Further, each midas is a franchise shop. You’ll get good and bad ones. I personally have had no problems with the local one in town. Since the car was originally serviced at midas for an emissions related repair, there may be a warrantee in place that’ll save money in the repair, if it turns out the parts and/or labor were at fault.
I’ll agree that without any further information on the car or actual codes, we can’t troubleshoot this further.
Also keep in mind that an exhaust leak ahead of the O2 sensor will make the system think it’s running lean, causing it to enrich the mixture and potentially soaking the cat in unburned fuel. There’s more here that we don’t know about.
Of course when a cat is bad replacing it will make the tailpipe emissions go down. no arguement there.
But what can you say when the emissions test with the 100,000 mile old OE cat is 717 PPM of NOX (limit of 700). When replaced with a brand new universal replacement cat the NOX climbs 1150 PPM?
This tells me three things
The OE cat was not bad
The replacement cat was a piece of shit.
The tech is guessing
As far as the quality of Midas repairs goes, yes there are good ones and bad ones. I have just had to fix the screw ups of too many of the bad ones, I guess.
You’ll get no arguement from me on your example. But without replacing the cat (or at the very least seeing if it reaches temp), how would YOU eliminate it as a variable?