# How do catalytic converters go bad?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-do-catalytic-converters-go-bad/122706>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [August 11, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-do-catalytic-converters-go-bad/122706 "2018-08-11T15:23:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marcelomontemayor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@marcelomontemayor](https://community.cartalk.com/u/marcelomontemayor)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-do-catalytic-converters-go-bad/122706/1 "2018-08-11T15:23:48Z")

</div>

why do catalytic converters become inefficient or bad?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![db4690](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/db4690/32/2583_2.png) [@db4690](https://community.cartalk.com/u/db4690)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-do-catalytic-converters-go-bad/122706/2 "2018-08-12T00:49:28Z")

</div>

Do you want to know the answer . . . ?

there is no one answer, by the way

Or are you getting a P0420 and/or P0420 code and you’ve failed your smog inspection?