What does a bad cat look like? Are there different ways it can die out? What does each way look like (Clogged is one type ive heard frequently)

 

A bad cat may look like Heathcliff...cause he comes from a loooong line of baaaaaaaaad ***** cats!

 

Found a picture.

http://www.emptec.com/art/badcat.jpg

 

you guys are baaahhhd



What makes you think you have a bad "catalytic converter?"

 

OMG the pic of that cat just make me almost choke dam funnie o man i think im crying of lafter

 

I've got a bad cat--he can be a real bastard sometimes.

Anyway, here's something helpful:

Read here

 

I had a bad cat and I tested it by driving it at about 3k rpms for like 5 mins. then i got out and looked at it and it was glowing. it was clogged.

 

Use a vaccuum gage. With a clogged CAT, vaccuum at idle will be lower than normal, and continue to drop as rpm is slowly increased.

Thats how I found my CAT to be plugged. To confirm, remove one of the AIR fittings on the exhaust manifold (creating an intentional exhaust leak ahead of the CAT) and repeat the vaccuum measurement. If results are good, it's time for a new CAT. Otherwise the exhaust is restricted (crushed pipe etc.)

 

Great info, nice pictures
I'll try the test, my cars having a slight hesitation around 2-2.5k rpm when accellerating lightly going about 80km/hr. Its like a dead zone. If I push harder though it'll eventually catch and accellerate. I also get fairly bad milage, maybe thats just my driving though lol. Exhaust smells kinda like fuel too... Been trying to nail this problem for over a year now :/

 

I had a bad cat and I noticed a significant loss of power when I stepped on it, so I took it to the shop and got a new cat!

 

When that happened I gutted mine