Hello, all. I might be at a cross road with my Dakota. It failed smog. Guy at the smog station said "try an injector cleaner and air filter replacement (I had already changed the oil) He also said he thinks the Cat is weak but wants to see if we can get another 2 years out of it. If it fails again in a week, I face having to replace the Cat. I was given a verbal estimate as high as $2500 (not from the same guy, he's just a smog station). The truck still needs a paint job, it's not the fastest on the road and has "livable" issues in other areas, 161K miles. It is an SLT so it has all the creature comforts and it's a 5 spd which I always thought was cool (except in traffic). Anyway, just wondering if anyone has had to have their Cat replaced and how much it might be. Oh, I'm in California. Thanks.

 

Could you get away with an aftermarket cat? Magnaflow makes direct fit fellers for a HELL of a lot less than 2500 bucks.....

 

Took the words right outa my mouth. The truck is probably not worth $2500. Walker brand comes to mind if you want to save some $$$.

 

Thanks. I will keep that in mind. Someone suggested Cataclean additive. I going to try that as well as soon as I can use up the Lucas I've already put in the tank. I must say, the truck is running super nice at the moment.

 

Back in the day, I used to retard the timing. Nowadays, it's all computer controlled. The additives rarely work. Make sure you take it on the highway and get the cat nice and HOT right before you take it in. Also, have you checked your plugs???

 

What does the report show is failing, NoX values?

Is the engine light on?

Is it a factory Cali emissions truck or is it a 48 state emissions truck?

 

Years ago I had a Toyota that never failed emissions until it did. .... Turned out the T-stat had stuck open on it and I never noticed it was not fully warming up .... Was the wife car I rarely drove it. ..... Was a eye opener when I took it to shops to make it pass emissions .... without looking at it, they wanted to charge me $500 for emission maintenance and then sign a waiver to pass it for 2 more years.
So I took it home and started playing with it and changed T-stat and end of problem.


Years later in a different state I had a work van that did not pass, I actually found a honest mechanic and left it overnight with him.
He hooked it to his machine and found out it would pass emission when cold, when fully warmed up it would not.
So he kept it overnight, in the morning took it to the test station a couple blocks away where his buddy worked ... had a cup of coffee with him while the van cooled off then ran it through.
He told me I needed a new carburetor ... pick up a holley double pumper and he would tune it for me ..... nice to find a honest mechanic.

 

Hello, all. This is what ended up happening. I did try the Cataclean. The Failing reading was 596 on the NO PPM @ 15mph (max is 517). After the Cataclean it went down to 197 and so it passed. What's weird as the reading at 25mph went from 390 to 418 which is still passing but I thought it was strange that it increased. Thanks all for the suggestions luckily I didn't have to go through changing out the Cat..... for now. We'll see what happens in 2 years.

 

Hi, I bought my Magna Flow Cat for $480 from HottExhaust online, then had it welded from a local shop for $110.
HottExhause will send you $75 for the old Cat core once you register with them