And along with cost: maintenance. The failure of a sensor could have far more dangerous consequences than a worn-out catalytic converter. You'll have to keep your car's sensors in much fitter trim. That will be impossible for lots of people who today can barely keep their car passing inspection.
The price of a catalytic converter is much higher. My friend’s catalytic converter was stolen from her late 2000s Accord, and her car was totaled as a result.
I bet it's easy to make $500/day briefly, and hard to sustain it. Catalytic converters have the benefit of not requiring you to break into someone's house where risk of being caught or harmed is way higher.
Many (most) states never actually hook cars up to sensors. So for most of the country, a half working converter looks right, at the cost of our air quality….
Catalytic converters are an expensive fix. It might not be worth it to fix the car.
Alternative option is to sell the car to someone in a state that does not require emissions testing.
Also, if someone steals your catalytic converter, and there is not much damage, it is possible to “straight pipe” it for cheap and just not put in a catalytic converter. Although, I would assume inspection stations have cameras or mirrors where they can see the bottom of the car, so this might only be worth it in states that do not do inspections.
In the real world, catalysts do in fact get used up, usually due to fouling from side reactions and that kind of thing. That's why you often need to replace a catalytic converter within the lifetime of a vehicle.
On the other hand the quality and performance of those $80 catalytic converters are questionable at best. They have neither the longevity, nor the performance of the original part. They might last even 10 times less, and they're usually just barely good enough to pass the emissions tests, which is already the lowest bar to pass given how all manufacturers optimize for that. Real life emissions are far worse.
And the purpose of the catalytic converter is to make sure the CO, NOx, and unburned fuel are rapidly oxidized to CO2, N, and water before leaving the exhaust system. The outcome is that you will produce more greenhouse gases but fewer compounds that are more immediately dangerous to people, especially in cities. So it reduces localized pollution at the price of more CO2.
That o2 sensor is an important part of the engine/emissions management system. Without that info, the car computer is not able to efficiently map the fuel/air mixture and over time is likely to lead to more problems. Depending on the car, the CPS sensor could be really critical (like if you've got variable valve timing in an interference engine I think?). Understandable you want to ignore that check engine light but recognize that $600 cost to repair could balloon into a lot more (even a destroyed engine).
In my newer vehicle, the Catalytic converter is actually in the engine bay. This has an emissions benefit in theory[0], since the cat will heat up faster. But as a side effect, GL trying to get it out. [1]
[0] - I say 'in theory' because some folks have had issues with unburnt fuel getting into the Cat and -then- combusting, which is of course bad for the converter and shortens it's life.
[1] - Probably also means replacing it legitimately is a stupid amount of labor though.
But aside, would you really be okay going back to the days of photochemical smog choking away your sunlight and skyrocketing rates of asthma and acid rain dissolving your ancestor's gravestones??
Federal law requires the catalytic converters. Everyone is definitely better off for them.
There's precious metals (platinum) in the catalytic converter. That's why they get targeted by thieves & are expensive to replace. $6k seems high though. I had to replace one years ago and it was less than half that.
Given the low cost and ubiquity of sensors nowadays, you'd think it would be feasible to require car makers to test emissions in real time, in the real world.
Considering that catalytic converters are routinely stolen from cars in car parks in places like the UK, I wouldn't feel confident installing expensive catalysts in the places where this would be needed.
I was thinking more about O2 sensors. At least a lot of Toyotas don’t like the aftermarket ones for some reason. No idea if they’re truly out of spec or what.
But there’s a risk with living with a check engine light. Some vehicles disable stuff like traction control in that state, and you won’t know when a new unique code has hit that you should deal with for other reasons.
Not sure about that. Some actual engineer may speak up, but it's my understanding that old engines were often run 'rich' and catalytic converters are somewhat fragile and won't last long if too much unburned fuel enters them.
The catalytic converter is actually a bad example because by chipping your car you could conceivably change the mixture in such a way that the exhaust gas temperatures would go outside their permitted ranges, and most cars don't have a failsafe for that.
To actually prove that the chipped ECU was the cause is still going to be pretty tricky though, but the catalytic converter is for this purpose still very much part of the engine.
The seat upholstery, the window glass, accessories and so on are likely to be unaffected, they are literally along for the ride, but almost every other part in the car, even including the suspension and the chassis would be operating at higher stress levels when you increase the engine power.
If the manufacturer pleads its case well they might be able to make that stick. If they sell the same model with a higher powered engine but all the rest of the drive components identical they're out of luck.
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