check engine po420

[alepar5]

Hi guys, I hope someone can give a lift, my camry is 96 LE 4 cylinders, this car show's check engine light on , so the computer shows this code po420, the mecanic suggest I have to change the EGR valve and you'll all set, so I changed. Them a couples miles this little light turn on again and the mecanic said "change the O2 sensor this is the problem" so i bougth and them he reset the check engine, but and them turn on again ..............what should I do. any sugestion?

Thanks

Alepar5

[chronoti]

is this code before or after changing those parts?

well looking at the OBDII post by the amzing phi i got this info

P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)

so it sound more like your catalic converter is going bad ... try taking if off(when cold of course) and try to clean it out some how. or get a new one from a junk yard. or you have an o2 sensor after the cat that could be going bad.

[alepar5]

hey guys i just let you know I could fix the problem with the check engine light , the problem was the VALVE ASSY, VACUUM. so maybe could happen to you, keep in mind.

greetings

Alex

[Roger Bear]

I have a 2001 Rav4 with 2.0L 4 with gear drive valve train and I have problems with the State inspection because the status keeps comming up that the Cats are not ready even after driving over 1500 miles. The dealer wanted me to pay him $200 for a new air filter and PCV valve and clean the throttle body, which I did myself for $25, but that did not fix the problem. And he kept the $80 for diagnosing even though they did nothing except suggest some very expensive repairs I could do myself.


I went crazy and purchased an OBDII interface for a ToughBook laptop that I got on EBay and it looks like the 02 sensors are fluctuating in range while driving and took the Rav4 to the good local diagnostic center which confirmed that the P0420 and P0430 were pending and the problem could be in the Catalytic converters, the O2 sensors or the OBDII itself. I still don't know where to go from here (except it will not be back to the dealer).

[fredk]

i want to know too

[Roger Bear]

I finally had the nerve to call the purchase dealer (not the jerks that wanted $200 for the airfilter and PCV in Tewksbury) and told them that the MIL light was on solid and codes P0420 + P0430 were in the OBDII and I had an independent emissions place verify that the cats were likely clogged. I flat out told them they had to replace the Cats and O2s and they tried to say that they had to verify it before they could proceed, but they did and 4 hours and several engine studs later they managed to replace all the parts. They said something crazy about the car had to have California emmisions to be covered by waranty, but they never asked me to pay when they were done - the final mileage was 57,500 miles - the mileage where the problems started (MIL came on) was 54,000. And I had noticed that the gas mileage had started to drop off from the 25MPG I was getting last summer to about 16MPG just before the work was done. I have only driven 50 miles since the work so I will have to post that after I have more data.

I'm still pissed that Alpar5 could not respond what he meant by the VALVE ASSEMBLY, VACUUM in his post above.

At least I now have a navagation computer for the car - I got the Garamin PGS 18 PC with nRoute software from X10.com for $115 which is able to vocalize directions while you drive - like the luxury car guys have, to go with my OBDII adapter and my Toughbook CF-25 for my Rav4.

[nativemm]

What do you mean? The the car had to have California emmisions to be covered by waranty?
Did you pay when the work was done? Was the car under waranty? What did the do to fix the problem?
thanks for the info
jm

[Roger Bear]

The primary failure if you get the P0420 or P0430 is the two Catalyic converters are clogged and they need to be replaced. It seems that this happens a little too often for a car that has no EGR valve and I wonder if there is some fundamental underlying problem which will just rear its ugly head (AKA expensive customer repair) later in the car's life, after the federally mandated 75000 miles on the emissions system expires.

The idiot dealer in Tewksbury just wanted some juice by claiming that the PCV valve and Airfilter needed replacing and the throttle body needed cleaning. Cause I replace the Airfilter and cleaned the PCV valve before I hired the diagnostic center to check the problem and the Throttle was not cleaned when the original purchase dealer in Woburn, MA finally did replace the Cats, and O2 sensors (no end user charge - Toyota paid the dealer) after the bogus diagnosis from the Tewksbury dealer. I would think that Toyota Corporate would have a little more pride in their product and concern for thier reputation and stop jerks like the Tewksbury dealer from mis-diagonsing unrelated customer chargable items that make them look bad when the problem is not fixed. I called Toyota corporate (under my real name) and complained and they did nothing, after promising that they would call back if I found no resolution to my complaint about the $80 bad diagnosis from the Tewksbury dealer. Shame on them as Honda will get my future business.

And the gas mileage has finally settled back out to be around 25MPG mixed highway and local driving. Which seems like it should be better with a car that has only moderate acceleration, although I kick the squirls pretty hard most of the time.

[Tercel GTS]

Sure the car doesn't want some weed?