ROW catalytic converter ? (cheaper)

[tabasco]

Hi everyone,

I have a 2001 Boxster S with 61000 miles that I bought recently.

Soon after I bought it, the CEL came on, with code P0430 = low efficiency for cat, bank 2.

Today, I started the car for 30 seconds to put in on ramps.

While I was under there changing the fuel filter, I also noticed that the bank 2 cat was almost cold while the bank 1 cat was still very warm.

Which tends to prove that I really need a new cat.

Now, looking in the PET, the US model has the part number : 996 113 104 05 "Exhaust manifold with starter catalytic converter".

This one costs $1200 :-(

Looking at the ROW PET file, the ROW model has the part : 996 111 104 00 "Exhaust manifold".

lt does not mention any starter catalytic converter, but from the drawing, it looks like it has a cat.

It has an O2 sensor before and after, which would tend to prove it has a converter...

This ROW part costs only $460 dollars...

Does anyone know the difference ? Can we use the ROW part on a US car ?

I could change both sides for less than one US side !

I'm also wondering why a cat would die at only 60K miles...

Thanks,

-Guillaume

[steve_wilwerding]

You would have to get your engine reprogrammed to ROW specs as well - you can't just put the ROW piece in there because it doesn't have a cat. Unless emissions are a big deal in your state, it's not a bad change to get your engine reprogrammed to ROW specs.

[infocusf8]

I would look around at the rest of your emissions system before replacing a cat so you don't lose another one due to some other existing problem. Typically cats go bad from raw fuel being poured into them from the ECU causing the system to run rich due to a problem with the emissions system. The unfortunate thing with Porsche codes, that involve emissions, is they only point you to a system and don't always mean that a specific part has failed. I went through an emissions episode recently that had one shop telling me to replace the entire secondary air system, another shop told me to replace the O2 sensors and cats and the problem turned out to be a disconnected 25 cent hose on one of the secondary air system diaphragms under the intake manifold.

[tabasco]

You would have to get your engine reprogrammed to ROW specs as well - you can't just put the ROW piece in there because it doesn't have a cat. Unless emissions are a big deal in your state, it's not a bad change to get your engine reprogrammed to ROW specs.

Emissions in my county just rely on the OBDII. So unless the RoW map prevents the OBD to report emissions stuff, that would be a good idea.

Also, this car will end up in Europe at some point... So it may really be a good idea to change to euro cats + euro maps.

I would look around at the rest of your emissions system before replacing a cat so you don't lose another one due to some other existing problem. Typically cats go bad from raw fuel being poured into them from the ECU causing the system to run rich due to a problem with the emissions system. The unfortunate thing with Porsche codes, that involve emissions, is they only point you to a system and don't always mean that a specific part has failed. I went through an emissions episode recently that had one shop telling me to replace the entire secondary air system, another shop told me to replace the O2 sensors and cats and the problem turned out to be a disconnected 25 cent hose on one of the secondary air system diaphragms under the intake manifold.

Yes, I noticed that the O2 sensor (pre-cat) has been changed recently, it's pretty clean.

If the O2 sensor was bad, the ECU could have made the car run rich.

I hope there's nothing else hiding behind that...