Cat cleaner

rockchick113

Having a few problems with engine manger light coming on on motorway, I only usely potter round town, car feels to lose power slightly and engine management light comes on, if I change down gear 5th -4th high revs it goes out, then it can come back on again after I've moved up to 5th. It's ok around town. having spoken to a few people it's been recommended the the cat could be blocked and I've seen these cat cleaner additives.
Question is are they any good, and will they do any damage?
Car is Vauxhall Astra 1600 8v

Strider590

Yeah, I got a lot of nonsense about "blocked cat" when my old Peugeot 306 had issues, turned out to be the lambada sensor. They were saying the cat was blocked because it was running too hot, but in truth the lambda sensor was causing the engine to run lean on fuel (which will burn much hotter than normal).

I'd get the fault codes read and see what's what from there. I have an elm327 bluetooth adaptor (about £10-£15 on eBay) that lets me read fault codes via my phone using the "Torque" app. Works a treat on my Vectra...............

arcon5

engine management light and performance issues - get it looked at, magic potion probably wont work

rockchick113

I've had the car looked at, all readings are normal, showing no faults..

arcon5

Take it to a better garage then. Vacuum guage will diagnose a restriction.

mcjordi

get it on a code reader.. dont just bosch some fluid in it.. cheap reader from ebay etc should give a generic code..

BeenThroughItAll

Most disappointing thread of the year award goes to...


I expected a totally different thread.

bigjl

It is most likely to be the lambda sensor.

As already said a cheap OBD from eBay will give you a fault code. P0130 P0170 and P0141 are ones I have seen mentioned.

Pretty common on petrol Vauxhalls.

Though don't underestimate certain additives

CataClean can sort out emissions and has been tested by CarMechanics Mag, they used it on a car that was failing the MOT on emissions. After using CataClean it passed.

Stuff like Redex also does work no matter what some people say, Fifth Gear tested it using a Rolling Road and it showed a significant improvement in power.

20aday

My Ford Fiesta had the same problem and it does sound like the lambda sensor; the light came on and off (whenever it felt like it).

I did use CatClean and Redex to help in terms of performance and it did make a difference but definitely one to check out in case it's something else.

Le_Kirk

Strider590 wrote: »

.....turned out to be the lambada sensor.

This is the device that checks if anyone in the back seat is doing an exotic dance!

Strider590

Le_Kirk wrote: »

This is the device that checks if anyone in the back seat is doing an exotic dance!

Yes, it seems Firefox preferred that spelling after it flipped back to US dictionary. I guess that it randomly wiping out all my cookies last week was not enough.