Broken RL

[redlinebrian]

So this evening i was out driving my RL and i had been having a good time. I wasnt beating on the car, just having fun. I come to a stop at a light and then i go. I was driving nice through first, then second. I go to five grand and i get readu to shift into third and the tach just drops completely and the car bucks. I also saw that the little battery indicator light went on. At this point i am veryu nervous. I put it back into second and expect to go only to find that i have no power whatsoever. the car just putzed along really slow. i also noticed that the engine light went on at this time. luckily i wasnt far from home so i cautiously drove home. during that drive i smelt something burning, i didnt know what it was at the time but i just wanted to get home. finally i am home and i park the car and i watch and listen to it idle. it cant settle it just kept boucing between 700 and like 1200 rpms. so i shut it off and popped the hood. my frind asked me why i had a light underneath my car. i loked at him completely dumbfounded becasue i dont have a light under my car. so i looked only to find what i think is my catalytic converter glowing red. i am freaking uot right now cuz i dont know what is wrong with my car. please somebody help me. bascially out of all of this i get no power, a glowong red cat and a tach that cant stay still.

[dazednconfused75]

I had something kind of like this happen. I bet the dealer will replace your cat and it will be fine.

[redlinebrian]

i really hope it is just the cat cuz the car is not running well at all as in i wont make it all the way to the dealership.

[dazednconfused75]

I would have it towed, that's how mine got to the dealer. I didn't see my car when it happened as it was at the body shop getting some things painted but the shop owner described chunks of burning ceramic from the cat blowing out the tailpipe as well as fire. They also replaced the whole exhaust behind the cat as well as the cat.

[redlinebrian]

so what i described seems to be what happend to your car also?

[dazednconfused75]

From what I was told, yes. It threw a cel and idled crazy but they never tried to drive it. You might want to let them know that pieces of the cat blew out the back to make sure they replace the exhaust because a piece can be wedged in there restricting the flow. I think it's because these cars run so rich that it happens. I've not had a problem for 9 months.

[Nero]

It seems as if the air/fuel ratio is very rich. I know that a lean condition is worse than rich, but is there not a happy medium? Some other members have had problems with a plugged CAT too, so this is not an isolated event. Best of luck getting it fixed.

[alredline04]

I had the same exact thing happen to my Dakota. I put 93000 miles on that thing and went through 4 CAT.'s. Emission warranties usually run longer than the regular warranties. On my Dakota it was till 75,000 miles.

[dazednconfused75]

Wonder how much leaner the Psi-Fi kit runs. I hope it's lean enough to avoid this hapenning because replacing cats out of pocket is expensive.

[alredline04]

I wonder if one of those high flow CATS is worth it. Or none at all