Tody i was driving home and my service engine light came on. The local dealer wanted $85 to hook it up and check out the problem. Well I'm in the military and we have a auto hobby shop that will do it for $25. so i went there real quick. It came up P0430 when we looked it up is said that it could be:
Warm up 3-way catalyst
Exhaust leak
Intake air leak
Injectors
Spark Plugs
Wrong Ignition Timing

The last 3 I think would cause the car to ride pretty rough, and i just changed the spark plugs about 4 or 5 months ago. The guy up there said he thought it might be the cataltic converter (which is no longer under warranty 114,000 miles) He also said that by looking at the computer the o2 sensors are good.. anybody else have this code .. the car is running fine, its not rough or anything. just trying get some more opinons before I have to go fork up the 85+ and the Dealer. thanks

 

i had this problem. It is the Pre cat. they are very high on the price list. I didn't have to replace mine because NYS allows 1 exception to pass the inspection and i didn't need to fork up the $1k+ on part and labor.

 

you mean the pre cat ... like on the y-pipe.... cause if thats the case i could just go with an aftermarket y-pipe... right?

 

no, the pre-cat in the headers

 

There are no pre-cats in the headers. They are in the Y-pipe on a 5th gen. It might also be the main cat. I'd buy the Y-pipe because it adds a good amount of punch for the buck on a 5th gen and see if that works. If not, buy a cat from Redlinemax.com or another vendor (not a OEM as they'll rape you). If you do it that way, you're not wasting money. You're getting more power.

 

sorry for the false information. but if there are 2 precats...how could they have charged me for 2 pre cats when i only have 1 y-pipe?

i have no doubt your right but i'm just confused.

 

The y-pipe is a collector pipe: it picks up from each header and collects the exhaust to a single exhaust pipe. The stock Y-pipe includes the pre-cats. They replaced stock for stock in your case.

 

well i never got it replaced.I was just wondering..they guy said i needed both precats. if it is just one pipe...how could they chage for both precats?

 

The pre-cats are on each pipe leading into the collector. Two pre-cats, one main cat.

 

right i understand that...i'm just confused how a person can have just 1 pre-cat replaced when both precats are in 1 y-pipe. Wouldn't you always have to replace both then?

 

cant believe you paid 25 bucks to check the codes..

autozone lends you their scanner for free..just need to leave you credit card with them..

 

I did not know this.

So if my service engine light comes on,
I can go to Autozone and they will run a check on my engine for free?

 

yep

In the past couple of times I went, they would not reset the light, they would just give you the code. This is in the Boston area, dont know if other people noticed this too around where they live.

 

did not know that, but the next time i will go there

 

so you think it could be the pre cats, or the main cat

 

Yep, same here. Some towns around Boston got stupid laws. Some stores won't do it after dark, some won't erase it for you.

But, i think you all need to look at the diagram of exhaust and dependeing if its Cali Spec or Fed Spec, you will know where the precats are.

 

its Cali spec .. im pretty sure they are on the y-pipe....

 

I did not even know that the cats could go bad

 

They go bad for most of us. however, I took my apart at 111k while swapping clutch, and the front was intact. No signs of anything breaking loose. I did replace the y-pipe though, so I don't know in what shape the right bank side was in. The main cat though showed signs of honeycomd starting to break on one side.

 

I am battling the same P0430 problem on my '00 Cali spec. It is the Bank2 precat that needs to be replaced. This is on the "front" side of the engine.

I have until next November to get it fixed as I am due for MA emissions at that time. Not sure how I'll do it. No way do I want to pay the dealer the $900 to replace the precat.

See helpful diagram on post#108 of:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....47#post3976447

Are you sure that it can't be the Bank2, rear O2 sensor that is bad? I thought about replacing that as a shot in the dark.

FYI, the autozone on Rt1 in North Attleboro, MA will clear the code no questions asked...

 

MA is somethin else...

 

P0430 is basically a bogus code. I used an o2 sensor simulator (actually I used 2 instead of the dual channel one) and have not had that code since. Many have spent big bucks on parts with no results.

www.o2simulator.com

 

Just reset ECU and get inspection done then.

 

BTW...you can buy one of the code scanners for about $80.00 at autozone.

Here is a picture of the one I have, it is the actron 9125 pocket scan.

Be the envy of your friends as you read & reset their codes!!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search.html...0Manufacturing