04 auto 77k miles Daily driver
On my way home today after about 20 min on the road i noticed i was slowing down. hit the gas and got nothing. looked at my tac and it was slowly going down but staying alive. pulled over and the car was idling so i tried to drive off again. i made it 10 feet before the car started bucking before ultimately it turned off completely. Sat for a few minutes then tried starting it again and it started right up. Revved it a couple times and it was ok so i started down the road. Made it about 200 feet and it turned off again. (Im only a quarter mile from my house now) After searching the forum from my phone for 10 min there i decided to try again and made it home this time. No idle issues, hot starts fine. Ive had an issue with low power under 4k rpm but thats been intermittent since i got the car a little less then a year ago. I was suspicious of my fuel pump for that problem. My guess is my fuel pump is bad. Ive just never heard of one dying like this. My 7s pump just plain quit one day but it got sand and rust inside. Any ideas?

 

any lights on the dash?
I think maybe gas pedal problem?
or related?

 

I'd bet more on a clogged cat here than the fuel pump. The fuel pump shuts down abruptly as you experienced with the 7. Letting the car sit briefly lets the backed up pressure bleed off enough to get fired and start moving. If I'm right, you are well past the danger threshhold of where engine damage, O2 sensor damage, and car fires can start.

Drop the cat and take a look inside.

 

ok. il drop the cat and check it out. no cel or other lights. temp was normal too

 

dropped the front of the cat. heres pics

 

Yeah, that's clogged. You can test by driving without the cat installed briefly. It will be way loud and you don't want the excess fuel lighting off under the car like that for long, but you should have full power back.

 

probably take it the rest of the way off tomorrow and hollow it out then. no smog tests here

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about halfway through the cat now. all the honeycomb coming out has been see through. no clogged stuff yet :/

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The pic you took showed the clog.

I pulled these together for another member, perhaps they will help

 

Thanks. My pics look almost identical to the clogged one. On an aff note, I like the missing one lol. That would be impressive to find. Back to work I suppose.

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Mid pipe time

 

well my car is now a dog person (hehehe) test drive was ok. gonna check coolant and oil once it cools off. didn't get my low end power back thotho. gonna try the 20 brake stop to see if that will help. Just did all that ess brake stomp and maf sensor with my oil change a week ago.

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A cat clog is a flow restriction, so it's going to affect higher flow rates, i.e, high load conditions, before low load. The low RPM power problem is more likely to be compression, ignition, or fuel trim related.

 

Ok. Thanks for all the help. Gonna go for a long drive today to make sure its ok. I've got an hour and a half trip to Erie on Friday. maybe I'll try to schedule a compression test at the dealer

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If the cat was clogged with previously good ignition components, could the bad cat ruin the ignition parts?
*EDIT* what I mean is, if you have an already bad cat, and install new ignition parts, can the bad cat ruin the new ignition parts?

 

No, I don't think a clogged cat can directly affect ignition parts.

 

Thank you.

 

Mine was clogged as well. I am showing a misfire as well after removing the cat. I am upgrading to BHR coils and wires just for piece of mind.