Is it safe to clean your catalytic converter by pouring some lacquer thinner in your gas tank and running the engine for about 150 miles as Scotty Kilmer suggests in this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icTmYItwiE The p0420 code came on about a month ago, and it goes off and on intermittentl…

Lacquer Thinner is mostly acetone…It’s a powerful solvent that can damage fuel system components. After it burns in the engine, there is nothing left to “get rid of impurities” in the converter or anywhere else… If your vehicle has over 100K miles, try changing the rear oxygen sensor since that’s t…

I would never run any amount of lacquer thinner thru an electric fuel pump in the gas tank. Most fuel pump assemblies have mostly plastic components. And if some plastics are exposed to lacquer thinner it melts. You do it first:) Tester

When you burn acetone (di-methyl ketone) or it’s close relative MEK (methyl-ethyl ketone) in your engine, it turns into CO2 and H2O just like gasoline does so I don’t see how it has any magic converter cleaning properties. Being aggressive solvents, they might clean your fuel injector nozzles.

@Manolito - Yes - well over 100k on the sensors. I’ll change it and see if that is the problem. I knew it was too good to be true. What about cat cleaners? I haven’t really researched them, but are there any that might do the job? Thanks!

I didn’t expect this to generate that many comments. I have to remember this website in the future!

“Would the fact that the light goes on and off have anything to do with a bad o2 sensor?” –If you had the codes read, you might be able to tell.

"–If you had the codes read, you might be able to tell. " Actually NO…When you read the codes…if an O2 sensor is bad it’ll give a false reading to the OBD-II system. If a cat is bad…the O2 sensor will set the same error to the OBD-II system. You can’t tell what’s bad by the reading. All you know fr…

I’m going to guess that you have a P0420. Here is a pretty good write up: [image] P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold How to diagnose, repair, and info on symptoms and causes of a P0420 engine code which means the catalytic converter is no longer performing at a normal level…

The thing to do next is look at the signals coming from the O2 sensors with a graphing scanner or (oscillo)scope. A good troubleshooter can tell whether the sensors are bad or they’re just indicating another issue.

Lacquer Thinner and Catalytic Converter

Maintenance/Repairs

js7b May 13, 2011, 4:31am 9

Would the fact that the light goes on and off have anything to do with a bad o2 sensor?

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Lacquer Thinner and Catalytic Converter

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