Catalytic Converter

[Deleted]

My wife had the catalytic converter replaced on her 2002 honda civic about 3 months go. I think Midas did the work. Yesterday her check engine light went on, we took it to the dealer and the diagnosis is that the catalytic converter is bad.

We have to contact Midas to get them to fix it, hopefully on their dime, but I don't know what the warranty looks like.

My wife is now concerned about Midas doing any work on her car because what they did failed. Is there any reason to be worried or do parts just fail sometimes?

Any other thoughts?

[tskeeter]

Arch, in a recent post, Rick talked about re-manufactured after market converters having problems with consistent quality. Did Midas install an OEM converter or an after market re-manufactured unit?

I'd consider letting Midas re-do the repair, but insist that they use an OEM converter, if they didn't do so last time.

I suspect that if Midas used an after market converter the first time, they will want you to pay some additional money to have them install an OEM converter. I think I'd take the position that they were the people who chose to use parts of questionable quality, that the poor quality parts they chose caused you to be inconvenienced and waste your time by having to have the car back in the shop two different times (once for diagnostic work, and a second time to have the repair re-done) for the problem that they were supposed to have fixed, and that their choice of parts caused you to pay diagnostic charges at another shop because the rapid failure caused you to want an independent evaluation. For your inconvenience and to reimburse you for the diagnostic charges you incurred, they should redo the repair in a timely manner, competent fashion, and using OEM parts, at no additional cost to you. Failing to do that, I would insist that Midas make a complete refund of the original charges as well as reimbursement for any diagnostic charges you paid.

[Wizard of Id]

It's possible that it's and O2 sensor or something triggering the code to come up. I had the code for a bad converter come up on my truck a couple of months ago. I figured out that it was a bad O2 sensor and after I replaced it the code went away.

[Deleted]

We took it back to Midas. They said it was a bad O2 sensor. So they replaced the O2s sensor and the catalytic, although they said the catalytic was probably ok. whacked us another $800. Bastards.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2012 14:57:18 GMT -5 @rj said:

Apr 16, 2012 12:17:07 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

We took it back to Midas. They said it was a bad O2 sensor. So they replaced the O2s sensor and the catalytic, although they said the catalytic was probably ok. whacked us another $800. Bastards.

So what code did they pull from it?

No idea.

[thyme4change]

I've never heard great things about Midas.