Help help help. Guess what, it was a coincidence. I still get engine catch, maybe not quite as frequently as before. My mileage this morning when I filled up was 32.4...apalling! The engine definately does not behave well when accelerating from low RPMs. I still think this is a communication problem with the O2 sensor or something. How can I troubleshoot this? Has anyone had problems with Bosch O2 sensors? I can't afford to buy a Honda version at $150 just to see if things improve.

 

If you used a cleaner that killed the O2 sensor...might it not have fouled the Catalytic also? Some of the stuff you are describing sounds like exhaust restriction (fouled kitty). That gets to be expensive in a hurry.....do you know a shop/mech that you trust? Maybe even running down to a stealer to do a diagnostic....but stearlerships ALWAYS find something other then the problem.

I think I'd invest in a re-tuneup of the car.....Clean the plugs, new wires, cap and rotor (did you already get those?),fuel and air filter, PCV valve....check all electrical fittings (grounds, battery connections etc) re set the ECU once more....then pay for a cat.

 

I hadn't thought of the PCV. That sounds like a cheap thing to try anyway. Does anyone have a picture of its location? I searched previous threads and I'm still confused.

 

OK, I changed the PCV valve last night. Things were pretty good this morning. I'm afraid to get excited until I see the mileage impact. That said, my PCV was long overdue. I think I tried to change it once a few years ago as maintenance and never did because I couldn't find it. Again, it was a bugger to find...silly engineers. It is not accessible without removing the oil filter. I was due for a change, so I did that, but getting the valve off and on was still a one hand operation. My book says to check for suction at the PCV hose with the engine running. How, may I ask, does one accomplish this without an oil filter! Of course, the pictures shown in the book are for a vehicle with the PCV valve located happily on top of the valve cover. The old valve was so gummed up that it didn't make any noise, even with violent shaking.

 

Keep us informed as to the out come....Hopefully it will be as simple as that one little $7.00 piece.

 

$3.90 actually! The car is certainly running better. Right now I have about 200 miles at half tank, which is more in line with what I used to see. Last week it would have been about 150 at that point. There is still the occasional engine catch at idle speed. I would have liked to check for good suction in the PCV system, but I did not know how to accomplish this with the oil filter issue. I think I'll change my cap and rotor this week since most folks seem to think this is a good idea.

 

My mileage on a full tank this morning was 35. That's better, but not enough and I still have the engine catch. It is especially noticeable when I get off the freeway. The engine will catch a number of times while idleing at the stoplight and you can see the RPMs drop a bit.

 

Well, mileage is back up to 40 mpg. For those who were assisting, thanks for prompting the full car tuneup. However, the culprit was a bad set of spark plugs. The gap was fine, the plugs were NGK R ZFR5F 11. This is what folks at NAPA gave me, but I think my cars wants platinum plugs. I put in a new set of Boshe platinum plugs last week and the car has been running like a dream. The badplugs had 5000 miles on them and looked worse than the original plugs that had nearly 95000 miles.