I have a friend with a crappy '02 RAV4, he recently heard a hissing sound when he was running the engine at higher speeds. I told him it was probably his catalytic converter.
After he did some investigation, he found out that he broke up pieces of the converter hitting a bump or something, and pieces were blocking the exhaust from getting out at higher speeds.
I told him he'd probably have to replace it to be legal, but he ended up poking or punching out the stuff inside of it, so that he just has the shell of the converter, but it isn't really doing anything.
Also, when this hissing was going on, his check engine light was on all the time, but after removing all the catalytic converter stuff, the engine light turned off? I assume this would be sensor measuring O2(?), but don't know why it would turn off.
Anway, the reason question I have is if there is a place you can just buy replacement convertors on the web? I don't know if he'd get in trouble with the catalytic converter the way it is, because I'm not sure how a person would tell it wasn't functioning unless they took off the exhaust.
After he did some investigation, he found out that he broke up pieces of the converter hitting a bump or something, and pieces were blocking the exhaust from getting out at higher speeds.
I told him he'd probably have to replace it to be legal, but he ended up poking or punching out the stuff inside of it, so that he just has the shell of the converter, but it isn't really doing anything.
Also, when this hissing was going on, his check engine light was on all the time, but after removing all the catalytic converter stuff, the engine light turned off? I assume this would be sensor measuring O2(?), but don't know why it would turn off.
Anway, the reason question I have is if there is a place you can just buy replacement convertors on the web? I don't know if he'd get in trouble with the catalytic converter the way it is, because I'm not sure how a person would tell it wasn't functioning unless they took off the exhaust.