Dcollier

I had a quick question for you guys.

I have a 2012 XLT SCrew 5.0 4x4, about two weekends ago i had the CEL come on. I took it to autozone and had them check the code, and they came back and said it was one of the O2 sensors that had gone bad, so i took it to the dealership to have it replaced under my extended warranty. While it was there they said that it probably needed a tune-up. I was suckered into getting the tune-up on it (which cost about $500), as well as the O2 sensor, that i was also told by the dealer, that was the issue, I paid for it and picked it up on thursday. I had the truck for about three full days after that, seemingly without issue, then monday afternoon my CEL came back on.

I took it back up to the dealer monday night, and on Wednesday was informed that my Catalytic Converters had gone bad and that was what was throwing the code. I know that cats will breakdown over time, so i asked the service rep if that could have been the issue which caused me to have to replace the O2 sensor in the first place. He proceeded to inform me that they checked the cats when i first had the truck in, and that they were fine. He then proceeded to tell me that the cats could go out at any instant, and to use his example, they could go out as suddenly as when you turn on a light and the bulb burns out. Is this actually true, or am i mistaken?

Also, he proceeded to inform me that the cats were not covered by the extended service plan, and that it would be almost $1,900 to replace them. Do any of you guys have a suggestion as to a good replacement set of cats that wont cost me that much, as i don't have that kind of money to spend right now. I am going to pick it up from the dealer today and bring it home until i can figure out what to do with it. Any help would be truly appreciated.

Thanks.

Neptunescab

Well to start what are the emmision regulations in your area ?

Boostking

While cats can go bad over time, I dont think they just go out like the flick of a switch as he described. Cats should last 100k+ miles. Chances are it was your cats causing the issue with the o2's. Bad cats can hurt the o2's so its no surprise if one was bad as a result of a bad cat.

That being said, if you dont need to worry about emissions, you could get a tune disabling the rear o2's and shutting of cat diagnostics. Then in the same step you could technically gut the stock cats or buy high flow cats, or headers with or without cats.

I'd really like to know how they "checked the cats".

tanked_darren

Cats is not cover by emissions warranty?

Sounds like you are being milked for all your worth

RLXXI

Not enough information to speculate anything, OP did you buy the truck new? How many miles on it?

Dcollier

I got the truck used, and as it stands it has about 85,000 miles on it. I already looked into the emissions warranty and realized i am out of the zone on that. Also, after looking over the Extended Warranty, it doesn't cover the cats. I also live about 30-45 minutes north of Houston, TX. and the emissions regulations in the county require me to have cats. So i am not to sure what a good replacement would be, i was looking at MAK Performance's catted y-pipe and didn't know how good or bad it would be.

Also just to clarify, I pretty much told the dealer he can shove it with that quote. So i am going to pick up the truck today with no work done on the cats and am going to get a second opinion on it. I don't know if anyone has any good suggestions of places to go around Spring, TX. to have them looked at or if there are any shops that specialize in our trucks around here.

Dcollier

See that's what i thought, and what pisses me off about the whole thing is the service rep didn't even bring that up as a cause for that O2 sensor failing. So at that point i started looking it up because, i was pretty certain that cats dont just spontaneously implode on themselves. After looking at the forum i started confirming my suspicion of what he told me. However i thought the nearly $1900 quote was ridiculous in the first place, especially since he told me that the problem should have been fixed the first time around.

RLXXI

Post the code(s) that you are getting. Might be able to steer you in the right direction.

Dcollier

Yeah, that first time with the tune-up last week, i now realize was a bad idea. But as soon as he told me this astronomical price, and after doing some research (probably would have been helpful to do in the first place) i have decided to go and get a second opinion on it. I am now going to be permanently walking on proverbial egg shells when it comes to any repairs on my truck and am not going to take things at face value anymore.

Dcollier

10-4. I will try and do that when i get it back, i just don't have a scanner at my disposal so when i can get the time i will get one and get the codes for you. I mean i will ask the service rep for the codes that they got on the truck, however i am not sure how much i even want to talk to the guy.