99 Mellenia S CEL

[Brentum84]

Hello everyone, Im new to this Forum, So ide like to take a second to say Hello to all.

With that being said. I have an issue. I just purchased this 99 S, and it has a CEL. I dont remember what the codes were, but they were Cat Converters bank 1 and 2. If i remember right, it was something about insufficient warm up. My question is, being the supercharged motor, and the cats built into the manifolds, am i able to go with aftermarket manifolds and do away with the Cats? Or what have people been doing. I bought this vehicle cheap, as a work vehicle, and i dont want to spend 500$ + per manifold.

Im also assuming this is whats causing my car to have little to no power under a hard acceleration.

Any input is appriciated. I have a decent knowledge of mechanics, just not much with foreign.

Thanks in advance!

Brent

[keninn]

Originally Posted by Brentum84

Hello everyone, Im new to this Forum, So ide like to take a second to say Hello to all.

With that being said. I have an issue. I just purchased this 99 S, and it has a CEL. I dont remember what the codes were, but they were Cat Converters bank 1 and 2. If i remember right, it was something about insufficient warm up. My question is, being the supercharged motor, and the cats built into the manifolds, am i able to go with aftermarket manifolds and do away with the Cats? Or what have people been doing. I bought this vehicle cheap, as a work vehicle, and i dont want to spend 500$ + per manifold.

Im also assuming this is whats causing my car to have little to no power under a hard acceleration.

Any input is appriciated. I have a decent knowledge of mechanics, just not much with foreign.

Thanks in advance!

Brent

there is some place in canada that has them for 240 each. and they would make them with no brick inside for a bit less. however, there is more to just changing the cats.
if the cats are clogged, then there are other issues. you might have a fuel problem. if you do, and it is not fixed, then new cats will die really fast, and you are back to square 1. you need to find out if they are clogged, and i have no way to tell unless they are removed. and pulling the cats is kinda labor intensive. a lift is a godsend for this, cause it is like a giant puzzle, all kinds of parts have to come off the remove the cats. i had to pull the entire exhaust system. i also drain and pull the radiator to get to the front one. it can be done with the radiator in the car, but it is tight.
some will tell you that there is an sib, rear sensors are too sensitive, yada, yada. and this can be true, but if the car has 100k+, more than likely the cats are dying and they need to either be changed or eliminated

yah, here it is:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-Mazda-M...item2eb78f3ee8

[Brentum84]

The vehicle has 110k miles. I checked codes and cleared them. They came back after about 50 miles. If it would help, i can rescan and get the actual fault numbers. Im not afraid of doing the work myself, I dont have a lift, but i have a fridge in my garage that holds and keeps beverages at a nice cool temperature, and all the tools i would need. I just dont want to go through thr trouble if its not the issue, but its all i can think of. If it wasnt robbing power, i might be forced to try sensors first, but as i said, standstill acceleration is horrible. However, if im cruising around 35-45mpg then jump on it, its not bad. Also, if i just drive it normal, there is no hessitiation.

Thank you for the information. I might just take it to the local exhaust shop and see if they will slice the cats out. Would this harm anything as far as backpressure for the supercharger? I can live with a CEL. Im used to that from elmininating the smog pump from my mustang.

[keninn]

Originally Posted by Brentum84

The vehicle has 110k miles. I checked codes and cleared them. They came back after about 50 miles. If it would help, i can rescan and get the actual fault numbers. Im not afraid of doing the work myself, I dont have a lift, but i have a fridge in my garage that holds and keeps beverages at a nice cool temperature, and all the tools i would need. I just dont want to go through thr trouble if its not the issue, but its all i can think of. If it wasnt robbing power, i might be forced to try sensors first, but as i said, standstill acceleration is horrible. However, if im cruising around 35-45mpg then jump on it, its not bad. Also, if i just drive it normal, there is no hessitiation.

Thank you for the information. I might just take it to the local exhaust shop and see if they will slice the cats out. Would this harm anything as far as backpressure for the supercharger? I can live with a CEL. Im used to that from elmininating the smog pump from my mustang.

removing the cats would greatly enhance performance. however, no shop in the us is going to do that, they would go to jail, and have a biiiig cellmate named "bubba". the spark plug anti foulers will turn off the cel, but it wont fix the problem, if there is one. generally speaking, if you clear the codes, and they come right back after 50 miles, the cats are clogged. and the backpressure would probably do way more damage to the heads, because of the heat from the forced induction having no where to go. if i were you, i would disguise myself as a well endowed asian girl, and ask yel-low. he can do the cats, but you might have to "put out"

[Brentum84]

Well there are 3 cats on the car correct? The two on the manifolds, then one farther back. So legally, you could remove the ones on the manifold because i believe you only have to have 1 per downstream. (I could be wrong on this, but a muffler shop removed the upstream ones from my mustang).

I woud be willing to go the asian girl route, who is the Yel-low and what do you mean see if he will do my cats? I am slightly intrigued and highly arou.... eh, nvm

[yel-low]

Originally Posted by keninn

i would disguise myself as a well endowed asian girl, and ask yel-low. he can do the cats, but you might have to "put out"

I've been busted.

[bigb]

I assume you are getting P0421 and P0431 which are common for this car.

there is a TSB about overly sensitive downstream o2 sensors on this car, so antifoulers might help you get around that.

As ken originally said, make sure those are your only codes, or you will have more problems down the road.

What you really want to do is hook this thing up to a diagnostic tool that can graph the o2 sensor data for you. from that you can tell if it's really a bad cat, or maybe just a limp dick o2 sensor.

it might be an easier problem than you think. if the upstream o2's are lazy then that would also explain the less than stellar performance.

[Brentum84]

After reading another forum post here about sluggish performance, i tried a "self test" as recommended with putting on the HOLD button and jamming that way. And the car was alot more active. So, Im going to service my transmission (car sits at 100k, and I received no service records when i purchased it) so, regaurdless, it needs done anyways. If that doesnt help, well then Ill be back to forum searching for more recomendations.

Those are the codes i have, i checked them again on my way into work. I had another code the first time I checked them, but it did not come back. When i purchased this car, it was from a less than reputable dealership, but i liked the car, and it was pretty cheap. I found numerous plugs in the engine bay removed, so i reinstalled them, so im led to believe the original code stemmed from that. A buddy of mine has the VERSUS diag tool from Snapon, It will graph. Thanks for that sugesstion. Its reasons like that i like to use forums and not just manuals, because of common sense items that slip my mind more often than not.

Thanks for the recommendations. I will see what i find and let you all know!

I will also look into the TSB for the o2 sensors and see if that leads me anywhere.

On an unrelated note, does anyone on the forum have a "junk" yard? I have a few items I would like to aquire, and cant find them around here or on ebay.

[bigb]

I think that was probably my hold light suggestion you liked hehe

Note when servicing the tranny, there are no filters or anything else you can service on the 2.3 other than pulling the pan and cleaning the magnet. that is about all you can do short of rebuilding it

as for parts. I have about every part of the 2.3 engine you can imagine. some body parts, etc. basically from the steering wheel forward I already have it cleaned, re-assembled, and sitting on a shelf in my garage.

just let me know what you want and I'll send some pics over.

[Brentum84]

I need the intake hose from the cleaner to the cooler. Had mazda order me one when i bought the car a month ago, and they still havent got it. Dont know when they will. Local napa store can get it for the 2.5 but not the 2.3. Also need a tilt motor if you have one laying around