Think my cats might be plugged...

SC90_Pete

Registered User
Is there anyway to tell if they are plugged without taking apart the exhaust? I've noticed my car has been sluggish lately and I will be changing plugs and wires soon, after all I'm still running the stock motorcraft wires/plugs after 65k miles. However I doubt that all of my cars sluggishness is due to plugs and wires so I think it might be the cats. While I was changing my oil today I knocked on the cats with a ratchet and one sounded a little different than the other. I plan on doing exhaust this summer but just want to know if this is the problem or if there is something more serious wrong with my 90 sc.
 
I just had this problem...

And no it wasn't fun.

For a couple of months, I was noticing a rattling sound coming from underneath the car in the driver's side when I would rev the engine up in RPMS. Finally when driving down the highway, they let loose and got caught up downstream. The car would barely drive 15mph in 1st gear. It was sad. What was even sadder was the fact that a Ford Dealer Charged me $437 in Diagnostic Fee and I had to pay another $387 in Towing to get it towed to my mechanic who actually KNEW what he was doing. Finally to add insult to injury, we pulled the exahust off and hollowed all the cats and put it back on.

If the exahust is plugging up, you will notice a significant-to-severe loss of power. Plugs and wires should be changed and you should seriously look into your air filter/fuel filter as well as a throttle body cleaning. I bet the engine will get more snappy after that. But if you are getting into a situation where you cannot spin tires in 1st gear, then I would look into Vacuum leaks and plugged exahust.
 
I noticed a loss of vacuume when my cats were plugged. Also, the exhaust sound was much much louder in the engine bay. Towards the very end, right before the car gave up the ghost, I had to keep my foot on the brake hard (automatic trans.) in order to keep the car stopped. The computer was conpensating for the lack of air, by upping the idle to keep it alive. Man... it's always a sad day when a head gasket goes....
 
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