CHECK LIGHT

recently my check light went on in my 98 accord. when i went to the
dealer this is what they told me was wrong.. they say my catalytic
converter deterioratoin was warn out. its going to cost me 800 bucks
to fix it. was the dealer pulling my legs or are they right. please
give me your feed back so i can take the right step into fixing my
car. thanks

 

I would get a second opinion to be sure.

 

My son's 98 Accord did the same thing. Dealer had the same diagnosis.
Son drove car for a few weeks, and the light went out on it's own. No
further problems. bob

 

Several things can cause it to look like the converter is bad. One of the O2
sensors could be weak, you could have gotten some bad fuel, One of the other
sensors could be bad causing it to run rich. You need someone to do a
thorough job of analyzing the problem before just throwing expensive parts
at it which the dealer is prone to do. The computer has a lot of information
stored but it takes someone with the knowledge and willingness to analyze
it.....

 

I would get another opinion and a more detailed explanation.

If you do need a cat convertor I would get an after market one. I believe
they are less than $200.

On my 96 Accord I used the secret emmission warranty last year and they had
to replace an O2 sensor. The sensor was seized in the cat convertor so they
replaced the cat for free. They also put in new cap, rotor, wires, and
plugs. The bill would have been about $1200 according to the paperwork but
it was all free to me. So the $800 doesn't seem to unreasonable for a
dealer to put on an OEM part. But if I were paying out of pocket I would
not go OEM on this.

 

My 99 Accord EX had the same problem. I believe it was a code 62 Low
Emissions Threshold. The cat is in a great location, easily accessible so I
decided to replace it myself. Honda wanted almost $800 for the cat!!!! I
ordered a Catco catalytic converter from http://www.summitracing.com/ . It
cost me $153.34 delivered and I got it 3 days after ordering. It came with
the 2 gaskets. I also spent about $2.00 for the 6 bolts, nuts & lockwashers.
Also a few dollars for the can of PB Catalyst for the rusted nuts & bolts. I
sprayed them the day before and again the morning of. I only had to cut one
nut off. It took less than an hour and would have been 25 minutes without
the rusted nuts.
Good luck.