I haven't posted on here for quite some time, so I just wanted to say hello and hope everyone is doing o.k.

I would greatly appreciate any members' help with the following situation:


Re: My 2000 W210 E55 * with 87,000 miles

....about 2 weeks ago, I started noticing a rattling sound coming from under my car while at idle. In the last 3-4 days it has gotten much more noticeable. I assumed it was something with the exhaust, so I decided to take it to a local Muffler shop where I know the owner and he is very honest and knowledgable. He put my car up on the lift, and told me the news..He said that both (2) of my front catalitic converters were bad! I asked the obvious question which was how much?? that is where I almost fell back! He made some calls and told me that each one is approx. $1,500.00 ! Needless to say...I was/am worried because that is a whole lot of money, especially right now for me. Just to be on the safe side, I also decided to go to another well known shop here in South FL that works on AMG's called European Auto, they have worked on my car in the past as well. They also told me the same exact thing...both front cats are bad and they actually quoted me $3,900.00 for the replacement with labor.

I asked both shops if there is any other way around spending ALL that money (which I don't have) and they both are telling me that there is NO aftermarket front cats, and that they have to be ordered from factory / dealer. They also advised me against removing the cats and just putting straight pipes because the car's computer would not read the sensors and hence would not run properly. I guess they are both basically telling me that there is no other solution!!

My questions to you all are:

1. Has anyone ese had this issue?
2. Are there any other (less expensive) alternatives?
3. Anyone know of any aftermarket front cats for our cars?

* Just a side note for everyone: unfortunately for me, my car is no longer under any warranty, and I was informed that the cats(exhaust system) is covered from MB until 8 years/80,000 miles. That sucks for me because I just missed both. (2000 w/87,000 miles.)


...any help or feedback would greatly be appreciated.



Felipe

 

Sorry to hear this news....as I am now worried beacause I have a '99 with 76k on it! Nothing rattling or making noise....yet!

I don't have any suggestions for this fix...perhaps someone else from the forum does? And I too will be waiting to learn what they know about this issue.

I wonder why both of your cat's went out together? And what may have caused them to go out with 'relatively low' mileage on them? I know people with Benz's that have over 180k on them...running the same cats!??

I wish you the best with this....and totally understand because I don't have that kind of cash laying around to fix cats either!

 

Why did your cats go bad? O2 sensors?

If your cats really are bad and you're out of emissions warranty... I'd get some new O2 sensors and weld in some cheap aftermarket cats and eliminate the secondary cats altogether....

or you could get Kleemann headers and downpipes

 

Mfte55black :

Thanks for the concern. To answer your question I am not completely sure what may have caused both of the cats to go bad at pretty much the same time. I did look at them when the car was up on the lift and was able to notice that one (left) is in much worse condition than the other. I asked if this is common to happen to our cars, and was told that it is NOT rare for it to happen. I was also told that if they go bad it is usually right around the
80K-100K mile range. The owner of European Auto did tell me that some of the causes for the cats to go bad is sometimes due to a "misfire" or pumping bad gas (dirty or low octane). Not sure how accurate that is.

 

Jeff.Bisonnet:

I agree with you in regards to the rear cats. I am currently looking at the option to eliminate the rear cats...from what I have gathered the rear cats are not too complicated to remove because they do not have any direct O2 sensors on them. My current problem is trying to find a lower costing solution to my front cats. If it were up to me, I would just remove them and put straight pipes in place, but I am told that this would throw off our cars computer.

 

That is very true, in fact most OBDII cars are designed not only to illuminate the service engine soon light but to flash it when the engine missfires bad enough to damage the catalytic converter. Bad or low octane gas can cause slight to heavy missfires which will damage the catalytic converters over time. But in my experience missfires are the number one killer of catalytic converters and where I work we change alot of cats because of people ignoring the problem for too long.

Hopefully you can find a reasonably priced solution.

Steve

 

Steve:

Thanks for the input. Yeah from what I have been researching it seems like that info is accurate about the misfiring being one of the main causes of cats going bad. I was just kind of questioning it a little bit with my particular car, because I have never pumped poor quality gas (atleast not that I have been aware of)...I have always made it a point to pump premium 93 Octane gas on my baby. Could be that I got a few bad batches of gas at a shady station...who knows.

 

You're correct about rear cats. They can be removed no problem.

Have you been to a local exhaust shop to have them check out your stock downpipes? They typically can weld you up a replacement for much less than whole new downpipes. I'd ask for some high flow metal cell cats.

 

[QUOTE=broker1;2709553]Steve:
I have always made it a point to pump premium 93 Octane gas on my baby. QUOTE]

I used to pump the 93 octane into my E55 back in NJ. Now that I am in Los Angeles the best gas I can find is 91....

does anyone know where to get some higher octane gas out here. I have tried Mobile, Shell, etc. and they only have 91...

 

I believe this statement to be very true. A misfire allows gas to enter the converter which is not burned in the cylinder. This can cause the converter to overheat and melt.

 

I have removed both front cats as my left one became bad. I still have the right one which is good and if you pay shipping I can send it. Maybe you should double check that both cats are gone. The reason my cat failed was because of a bang to the exhaust going over a ramp. Removing the cats and putting straight pipes in only made it sound better and seem punchier than before. I have had no problems with the enigne managment and no problems with the emissions. I still have the secondary cats but no resonator just an XPipe.
You should be fine with removing them but mine is a 99 pre can-bus/pre facelift.

Oh and I forgot this happened at 79k I am currently at 83k miles.

 

I would like to thank everyone who has chimed in so far with suggestions and just overall feedback.

Waynec1980 :

It gives me a bit of hope to hear that you were able to remove / eliminate your front cats on your '99 W210 without any negative effects. That is exactly what I would like to do myself. I am not an expert on these cars by any means, but I do have a bit of overall knowledge on the basic mods etc. I have always been able to mod other vehicles that have O2 sensors, with aftermarket parts (obviously the aftermarket parts bring their own O2 sensors as well)...the thing that has me puzzled is that both shops, told me that it could not be done on this particular car. The owner of the local muffler shop that I first took the car to has always worked on my cars, and he is known to be extremely honest and knowledgable about modded cars...I guess basically what I am trying to say is that the guy "knows his s**t" and he flat out told me that there was nothing that could be done except for replacing it with originals??? This is what has me so confused? I have always believed that there has to be a way around almost anything, especially something that to me does not seem to be that complicated. Plus...I keep thinking to myself....." $1,500.00 for EACH front Catalytic Converter???? DAMN that is way over priced in my opinion.

There has to be someone out there who knows of a company/shop that carries/makes aftermarket front cats for our cars...or something * (down pipes)that will basically eliminate/replace the front cats..and that would hopefully bring its own O2 sensor plug-in, or a solution for the stock O2sensors.

Anyone?????? I need some help! If I don't find a cheaper solution, I am afraid it is only a matter of time before the problem gets really bad, and then as with anything I may be risking damage to additional parts. The big problem here is that I don't have anywhere near the $3,000.00 + that I have been told it will take to replace.


Felipe

 

Well when I was pricing them up over here in the UK I was quoted £1700 each which roughly equates to nearly $7000 for the pair. I had no option but to take a risk and fortunatly have had good results. You could always cut them out see how she runs and if you do have problems go for replacement cats after all. Also a friend of mine who manufactures custom exhaust sytems and removed the cats told me that if I had problems that he could easily replace them with aftermarket sports cats as the originals are very simple in design.
I was also told that I would have problems if i remove the cats by 3 other garages.

Sorry I cannot be more help, but all I would say is go for it! Good luck.

 

You could buy a lot of other things for $3K. I'd try what Waynec1980 is saying. Specially if you can put in the O2 sensor.