Lacquer Thinner and Catalytic Converter

aivlast,

Run that tank of gas down and refill a couple of tanks to get back to normal fuel.
Then have a good mechanic check the signals coming from the O2 sensors with a graphing scan tool or scope.
Don’t just blindly change parts.
http://www.obd-codes.com/p0420
http://engine-codes.com/p0420.html

A GALLON of lacquer thinner? Folks, do NOT do this at home!

"But, I am told there is a problem on state inspection, not sure if that
is state wide. But, you are, or are not, it’s not clear, allowed one
readiness failure whatever that means."

I live in an outlying area around Fort Worth, where we have OBD inspections. My inspector told me my 99 Cavalier would fail if it had more than one “not ready” status. This was after it failed because I’d disconnected the battery to make a repair and forgot to wait for the system to reset. You get one free retest if that happens.

According to the DPS web site, my car should be allowed two “not ready” readings, and 2001 and newer cars are allowed 1. I’m guessing the inspector misunderstood the specifics. It passed when only the evap system wasn’t ready; that one can take a long time.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/Misc/faq/OBD_Notice092008.pdf

Nowhere in the Valley does this kind of inspection, so I wouldn’t think it would be a problem if your inspections are done in McAllen.

circuitsmith,


Thanks for the advise. I will do as you say.


Aivlast,

Hopefully your report of this acetone treatment of your Xterra, and the (predictable) failure will help convince other people who see this thread in the future to not try this act of vehicle abuse.

You might be lucky, and only your O2 sensors are fouled/bad at this time.

Hopefully you haven’t caused any permanent damage to your motor.

BC.

Ditto to what Bladecutter said.

Unfortunately, it’s entirely possible that the acetone treatment cost you some parts in addition to the original problem. It’s entirely possible that the actone poisoned the platinum-palladium in your cat converter. Perhaps it never really sufficiently burned and passed through depositing contamination on the catalyst.

Sincere best.

i just ordered a bottle of cataclean for $28 it says to put it in with a 1/4 tank of gas once the coverter is warm and drive for 30 miles

so kinda the same thing huh/

i just ordered a bottle of cataclean for $28 it says to put it in with a 1/4 tank of gas once the coverter is warm and drive for 30 miles

so kinda the same thing huh/

Yea…it’s WORTHLESS…you just wasted $28

So, since the P0420 code can mean either a bad cat on bank 1, or a bad rear sensor, can I do the following to determine which one it is? I have two banks (Chevy Suburban) so can I swap the two rear sensors and then see what error code comes up? If it is still a P0420 it would seem to be a bad cat on bank 1. If I get P0430, it would seem to be a bad rear sensor.

Is this right?

Mike, it isn’t TOTALLY worthless…someone made $28 bucks off of it.

Unfortunately, it won’t solve any problems. And may even create some.

I have a question. Why not remove the cat and soak it in the lacquer thinner? It’s a bit stronger than dish soap and it would avoid running the thinner through your fuel system.

If you are going to go through THAT much trouble, why not just install a new cat and be done with it.?

Hey! What about starting a business renting out “Loner Cats” for that week when your emissions test comes due? As Americas vehicle fleet ages, all sorts of creative solutions will be found…

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How about a business soaking cat converters in lacquer thinner? You could call it “thinner cats inc.”.

Sorry guys. Is it Friday yet?

If there was ever a thread that needed to die…

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“Catalytic Converter Restoration Services” Like those shops that refill ink cartridges…We could all get rich off this…Franchise it out like McDonald’s…

My car cleaned up its own cat convertor, and that as you can see has been a long time.

you should just put in a new cat and sell the old one for scrap, you can get good money for it

autopia February 15 Report
I have a question. Why not remove the cat and soak it in the lacquer thinner? It’s a bit stronger than dish soap and it would avoid running the thinner through your fuel system.

That, soaking it in water with laundry soap, not lacquer thinner, is actually what Scott Kilmer recommends as ideal. But, the cats are usually so rusted up most of us can’t get them off.

I was surprised at the responses to aivlast tale of woe. Circuitsmith nailed it as far as what to do next. But, no one asked aivlast exactly why he put lacquer thinner in his gas tank. Did he check the sensors, or simply toss in the thinner when he got he engine code?

I am still not convinced it won’t work. But, I’d sure want to know my cat was bad before I did it.Most of my Google hits on bad cats indicated a very high percentage of bad cats CEL are actually bad sensors. Yet, no one asked him if he tested or replaced his sensors BEFORE dumping an unknown mix of lacquer thinner in his tank

At the time my code went out again , I was in the process of sending Scott Kilmer (for those who don’t know, he has run a car talk type show in Houston for a very long time) an e-mail to ask him exactly which brand of lacquer thinner he used. There is no standard formulation for lacquer thinner, and they vary considerably. I was also going to use a quart in a very low fuel tank, not a gallon, so it didn’t stay in there long.

Let me add here that the original criticism here of the lacquer thinner was that it would seriously harm the fuel system. No one mentioned it might mess up the sensors. Nor, do we know that circuitsmith’s suggestion won’t clean them up. Nor, do we know the cat isn’t cleaned up, although we aren’t even sure it was polluted.

Except for circuitsmith, the usual thorough analysis of a problem simply wasn’t here on aivlist posting.

By the way, someone mentioned the acetone. That was supposed to be TWO OUNCES per ten gallons of gas, a totally different issue, and was allegedly only working on some formulations of gasoline.

hi guys, this is for every one trying to repair the p0420 code by cleaning the cats, some one has been doing this to diesel trucks in europe apparently with success.
check it out: http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=1737
i don’t see why not trying it on gas.

My son had a bad miss in his car and his neighbor suggested to cut off his cat, you know, to make it sound better lol , because it was missing on one cylinder… didn’t work …so he finally brought it to me, and it was bad spark plug wire … so always, always double check the inexpensive first