converter turning red and car ETS and Engine light came on?

Question

Yesterday my 1998 Cavalier started first thing in the morning, ran crappy for 2 miles to work and the ETS and Check engine light came on as soon as I started it. Did the same on the way home. This morning I got pulled over by the police on the way to work again. They were telling me that my exhaust was cherry red up by the converter.  This all happened within 4 miles of driving. Any one with any Ideas I am afraid to drive it to get it looked at, I was going to take it and have it looked at today (I decided to take day off and see if I can get it fixed). Would appreciate an Idea before I take it and get raped by mechanic. Car ran good in drive but terrible in other gears everyone was telling me traction problems but what would that have to do with exhaust? Engine light flashes after a minute but ETS light stays on.  Drove home from Church on Tuesday night no problem Wed morning woke up to leave for work and this started immediately. Drove home and parked it in heated garage because somepne told me I drove through water and maybe traction sensor froze but took it out of garage this morning and it was still the same except for the police officer pulling me over to tell me my exaust was cherry red so I drove back home and took vacation day to get fixed would just like an Idea of what to expect the mechanic to say. A trustworthy one is hard to find where I live.

? · Accepted Answer

You have a clogged converter from the substrate from the converter falling off the sides and plugging your converter. That means your exhaust stops there and causes the substrate to heat up from the temp. of your exhaust. If you don't want to ruin that motor or cause a fire, replace the converter before driving it. The mechanic will say you need a new converter, which you can check around for prices., bottom line unless you're going to cut it off and weld the new one on, which it should be up on a rack, you're looking at whatever the converter cost is plus labor, hopefully none of the particulate got down into the rest of your exhaust system or you could be looking at replacing more exhaust components. The ETS light is from a downstream 02 sensor that tells the computer the status of the converter. It stands for exhaust temp. status.

Twocell · Answer

Classic symptoms of a plugged-up catalytic converter.The ceramic inside has melted and causing the engine to bog down due to lack of exhaust(thus the shifting problems)Best thing is to have autozone pull the trouble codes to verify.May be more problems that may have caused it.(i.e..O2 sensors,Throttle Position Sensor,Mass Airflow,ect.)That will at least point ya in the right direction when you do find a good professional.At least you are more informed.

mailbox1024 · Answer

Your catalytic converter is plugged up causing the heat to build up and turn cherry red. usually the cats dont go bad all by themselves, there has to be a condition to cause the engine to run rich and overheat the cats. You may have a bad O2 sensor, so replace the cat and then run a scan on the ECM to see what sensor is bad to cause the engine to run  in a rich condition.
good luck......

Anonymous · Answer

Sounds like you cat is buggered.... a bad 02 sensor might have caused your cat 2 block up ??? either way you need a new cat or if you live in a state without smog tests just bash the inners of the cat out.

CARL G H · Answer

had it run fine the day before? what changed? was there a chance you drove off a curb, hit something etc. a crushed tail pipe can cause this, was there any odd sounds before this started? all of this must be considered.

? · Answer

You have a Catalytic Converter Problem...  and you should really attempt to fix
it yourself with your Low opinion of technicians...

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converter turning red and car ETS and Engine light came on?

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