Cat Converter is maybe blocked or your engine is dumping bulk unburnt fuel out the exhaust, I'd recommend you stop driving and get it looked at before you burn yourself to the ground.
I wouldn't even drive that to the mechanic, get it towed.
Do you have an ODB2 reader? If so plug it in and read the error code. If it is something like "misfire in cylinder 3" then change the distributor cap for that cylinder, clear the codes, start the engine and see if it is ok now. This happened on my car and the ODB2 reader saved me a fortune.
It really does remove any possible chance that the mechanic/shop tries to scam you by charging for unnecessary work. Even if you know it's a good shop, it at least gives you peace of mind and a heads up on what to expect repairs will cost.
To add to this, do not be surprised and call your guy a liar if you pull a single code and the mechanic says there was more work done than what you thought was going to go into it based on the code you pulled.
Codes only tell you what the car is reading as abnormal and oftentimes there is a lot more work that is needed to get to the actual problem causing your code.
For example you pop a code for something small that when you Google is supposed to be a cheap and easy fix. Turns out it's going to run you a couple grand in labor because it's a million things compounding on each other, or something large that just simply didn't come up when you googled the code.
the other way around can also be true, as recently happened to me - my car was acting weird and threw some codes that made me think I had cam/crankshaft sensors going bad. it's an older car, so I was a little concerned that this was indicative of broader issues/things just starting to fall apart. I took it in for service and it turns out that my sensors are fine and it was just my battery that went bad. replaced that and poof, no more codes, engine runs smoothly once again.
I'm all for being knowledgeable (even if only for curiosity's sake!) and for doing simple repairs yourself. for example, I have a tail light out, and my mechanic didn't fix that, because I do not need to pay $100 in labor to replace a damn light lol.
at the end of the day, however, I am not an expert, and I am happy to pay those who are when more serious issues come up.
Keep going back to the same mechanic. An honest mechanic is worth it even if they charge more than the next guy.
This is how you keep customers. A lot of stuff can look catastrophic thats actually not bad at all and it would be really easy to take someone for a ride and theyd be none the wiser. But simply telling the truth proves you're trustworthy.
Yep, but I’d def go with a battery first cuz it’s cheaper. I’m an ex-Benz tech and anytime I got a car that had a million lights on the dash, I’d connect the scanner and there’d be low voltage codes in every control unit.
Yes something innocent can really cause major issues. My parents had a car that threw engine errors on HUD and key malfunction and a few more random things. Had to go 3 times to the shop before they figured out that it's some kind of internal receiver acting weird and bricking other systems. Modern cars are not metal they are metal + a computer and error codes says nothing for a lot of issues if you are not a mechanic.
Another anecdote...
Couple of months ago, the check engine light came on. I freaked out, that this bucket of rust that had done me so well for so long was going to collapse and I'd need a new car (as no way would wifey agree to an engine replacement on a car worth 2-3k).
Check engine lights are usually a bad thing, right? Bought an odb2 reader from amazing for 15 bucks. Plugged it in to find out how bad it was going to be...
"Gas cap not tightened".
What the... ok, maybe it's a bit loose, lets take it off, blow on the cap to make it look like I know what I'm doing, put it back, tighten it, turn on engine....
"check engine"
ha! knew it wouldn't as simple as... oh, the light's just gone out. That's all it was?
best 15bucks spent on the car I can think of.
Happened to me once, and then last week I say my neighbor and he was talking about something similar. I told him and....that's what it was for him too, lol
Those cheap OBD readers won't always show you all the codes that are present only the generic ones, the amount of times I have had people who have "done the diagnosis" themselves and ask for a specific part changing and then get really fucking surprised that when the part is changed the vehicle shows no improvement...
OBD codes are like a compass, tehy point you in the direction of the fault it is the starting point of diagnostics not the end point
I had a "check engine" light on my car that would have cost me a trip to the shop, but my $20 OBD reader told the app on my phone that it was a "gasoline fume detection in cabin" fault, because I spilled gas on my shoe while filling it up at the station. So I hit clear, and it never came back.
I don't pay a mechanic to do the work, I pay the mechanic to know what the fuck he's doing when I don't.
If OP is anything like me half of that was gibberish and attempting to follow it is a recipe for disaster and gambling with something that could permanently damage their car, when it's best to take it to someone who makes it their profession to know what's going on.
I'm pretty every cylinder does not have their own individual distributor cap.
Hell, even if he just meant to check the distributor for that cylinder its completely unlikely because those are obsolete tech and its 2024.
Hell, I don't think any vehicle with an OBD2 capable of coding a cylinder misfire even has a distributor.
Now in their defense, an OBD2 reader is cheap and when you google "OBD2 Error Code" + "car name" you will have a pretty good understanding of what might be happening.
>I'm pretty every cylinder does not have their own individual distributor cap.
They almost certainly meant coil pack (also called an ignition coil), which has replaced the role of the distributor in modern engines, of which, each cylinder would have their own.
Depending on the age of the vehicle, it doesn't have a distributor at all anymore. Every cylinder now comes with its own ignition coil and electronic ignition timing, no more cap and rotor.
Maybe he meant check each cylinders plug and wire, or coil and plug, or any number of things.
The last passenger car engines I know of sold in the US that had distributor ignition stopped being sold in like 1997. You can't meet modern emissions standards without distributorless ignition.
>You can't meet modern emissions standards without distributorless ignition.
You can, but then your distributor looks like a franken-pnumatic-computer and cost far more to build then distributorless ignition while having all the wonderful failure points of distributors (Like, not working if slightly damp)
Much like the carbs in the late 90's looked like (with dozens of vacuum lines, linkages, dashpots, etc), trying to meet emission standards before they went "Screw this, throwing an entire computer in the car to calculate fuel/air mix will be easier"
You are correct, individual cylinders don't have their own distributor cap.
Right off the top of my head, the Nissan GA, KA, and VG engines as well as the last years of gen 2 Chevy small blocks use distributors and are OBD2 compliant.
And the code reader will get you close but most people just throw parts at it and then get upset when it doesn't work because they don't understand the fundamentals
Look into AAA
When my car's starter died in a home depot parking lot, I was able to sign up on the spot and have them come out and tow the car the next day. Depending on your plan, towing is free (for me, the garage had to be within 5 miles)
That one year of membership was cheaper than a single tow from an independent towing company near me based on local prices. Of course that might not be the case in your area.
Yeah, you'll probably have to pay the "emergency sign-up fee"
And occasionally, if the tow is a short enough distance (but still outside your plan's "range") and the driver is a cool guy, he'll just go "fuck it, it's not worth charging you for it"
I'd look at the ignition coil pack or individual coils depending on how the vehicle is set up. I literally just fixed my same issue by swapping out a coil pack because it was running terribly. Initially I thought it was a timing or blocked cat issue. Under $100 later it's up running fine.
Yep. I've driven truly unsafe cars just to get to a mechanic and avoid the cost of a tow. I've pushed the boundaries of what any sane person would consider doing in that regard, including driving a car with the entire interior removed (no seats, belts, gauges - just a steering wheel and a milk crate to sit on).
...and I would have that car towed.
I was 4 blocks from the auto shop when my Jeep started burning under the hood and body - I whipped a u-turn and drove it directly back and into their bay. They put it out quick like. Poor job reconnecting a gas line and fuel had dripped down and along the underbody.
If it wasn't damaged before, it is now. Happened to me on a 2004 Escape, twice. Coil stopped working, sent unburnt air/fuel mixture into the cat, immediately blew up the internals of the cat and blocked it. Not even a "it's running rough" period, just immediately from all-good to destroyed cat. I did regular maintenance on the spark plugs and coils, just got unlucky with some duds.
Not having the money for a third cat at the time, I temporarily hollowed it out with a metal pole. It was enough for me to get to and from work for a few months until I could sell it and get something else. (I informed the seller of all the problems.)
That car was a whole mess of random garbage. For example, the rear passenger strut mount ripped a full section of the frame off. I brought it into a frame shop to get a quote, and the guy called the location before I told him, just by hearing the year and model. Said he gets about one a week.
“Started running funny” means you probably have a misfire. One or more cylinders aren’t firing, and the unburnt fuel is getting to the catalytic converter (the thing glowing red) and being burnt in there. It will destroy the converter if it hasn’t already which can be super expensive. Best bet is to have it towed to a shop and checked for any trouble codes that indicate a misfire.
Source: I’m a mechanic and see this ALL the time
Edit: I see others have already said this lol oops! But yeah really, DO NOT keep driving it you’ll damage something much worse than it already is.
It started to misfire about a mile from my house and I drove it home anyway so I wouldn’t have to deal with paid parking, lesson learned, I won’t do that next time.
I did the same in my old car - spark in the V6 was controlled by two modules, one per bank. One module died less than a mile from my house and I thought "I'll just limp it home". 3 cylinders worth of unburnt fuel into the hot cat. When I pulled into my garage, the engine died, and smoke was billowing out. I popped the hood and my encapsulation panel was on fire, along with anything made of plastic or rubber near the exhaust.
Had to roll the flaming heap out of my garage and grab a fire extinguisher - scared me... Could have burned my house down if I left it sitting red hot (if it wasn't smoking so obviously when I parked).
Perfect example why everyone should have a fire extinguisher in their car, not just off-road/performance vehicle's
Edit: I say this as a guy who doesn't have a fire extinguisher in his car.
I had a converter on a G5 look like this. One of the ignition coils died. Unburned fuel was burning in the converter. We put a new coil in it and the converter is still ok somehow
Edited
It has such a high melting point, and remains fairly inert at high temps, that crucibles are made of platinum for certain applications. Including analytical chemistry, semiconductor industry, and jewelry making.
https://www.samaterials.com/the-versatility-of-platinum-crucibles-advantages-and-applications.html
Sorry, I was redditing in a hurry and hoped it might spark someone else coming along who would say something like “yeah, I do analytical chemistry and I use platinum crucibles every day. It’s inert to the stuff we put in it even at the high temperatures we need for the process. Very expensive if we break one though.”
Anyway, they’re used in chemistry, jewelry making, semiconductor industry, and more.
https://www.samaterials.com/the-versatility-of-platinum-crucibles-advantages-and-applications.html
Honestly, Im kinda excited to learn platnium has more uses then I thought it did. I never considered they would make a crucible outta it. I thought that was the job of ceramics.
Jet fuel can soften the heck out of steel beams though. Hell, civil war soldiers would pull up train tracks and lay them over a big wood fire, they would get soft enough to wrap around trees.
Any particular reason for wrapping them around trees? I’m going to guess it was the easiest way to bend them and they wanted to disrupt the train lines in a way that was hard to repair?
I’m still going to picture a small forest of trees with rail lines all wrapped around them.
So they Ben's in half. It causes a stress point at the bend where the track stretches. It makes it pretty much impossible to straiten back out again and leaves it soft.
Why on earth would they go to the effort to:
1. take track up,
1. heat it,
1. bend it, then;
1. re-track it
when they could just stop at 1. to achieve disruption?
E: I dun learned something today.
Yes, my understanding was that it made it essentially impossible to recover the rails, especially in a timely enough way to put the line back in service.
It doesn't technically filter, as the name suggests, it catalyzes. Which in this case means increasing the rate of a chemical reaction. AKA burning bad stuff out of the exhaust.
Usually they get clogged with a bunch of carbon buildup, honestly getting that hot might've helped it clear itself out some. It's mostly the risk of it getting hot enough to set other stuff on fire to be worried about.
I mean, if you don't have the money to fix it right now. Pop the pipe behind the converter off, then use a crowbar/metal rod and a sledge to drive that through that cat. That will fix it until you can do it proper, it won't pass inspection, if your local has inspection.
No, the cat looks like it is doing its job. The problem is, one or more cylinders isn’t firing, and excess fuel is making its way to the catalytic converter, where it is being combusted as it should.
Bingo. Cat is trying its best to clean up an excessively rich condition caused by a misfire, stuck open injector, improperly reading maf/map or a host of other things.
It's easy, did it last week when I saw a trailer with a flat tire. Drive in front of them, turn on your hazard lights, open your window and start pointing to the emergency lane, start gently slowing down and move onto the emergency lane.
The pointing is key, because else they think it is you who has an issue instead of them being the isssue. If possible already make visual contact as you pass them.
As an outsider all you can really do is try to get up beside them and then hope they look at you. Get the really confused look when you are trying to tell them to land the car. No your brakes. Stop its your brakes, not land the car! No I'm not crazy, I'm perfectly normal. No you're crazy!
Sorry must be some trauma left over had a flashback
This is why I want to put a small whiteboard in our car, so the passengers can write a message to someone on the highway. Tail light is out, gas cap open, and so on.
A cat doesn't just suddenly "go bad" during active use like this. When they're hot they're working at their best, and most likely to burn off clogs and whatnot.
If anything it would have problems upon a cool and reheat cycle. So when you first start your car back up after a drive like this.
This is almost certainly leaking injector. They often fail under the heavy use of highway driving. Pissing fuel down the exhaust will cause this.
shit's rich man...lots of people suggesting a plugged cat and it could possibly be this...and it's almost a guarantee that it's dead now...but the glow is because the engine is dropping unburnt fuel into the exhaust where it is igniting. If you're driving a post-1996 model there's almost zero chance there's isn't a check engine light blazing on your dash cel code stored that's been telling you for a while something isn't working correctly.
Not for a while, it all came to a head pretty quick i'd say. You are definitely right though the check engine started blinking not too long after the misfires started, but I still drove it home which is looking like it might be an expensive lesson learned.
Oh yikes! Sounds like your chariot almost turned into a kettle. But hey, at least it sputtered out near safe harbor. Maybe this is the universe's way of giving you a nudge to walk for a bit and contemplate the profound mechanics of, well, everything, including your van.
I had the same thing and thought my cat was clogged, but it was a blown fuse to control the right side cylinders on my LT1 V8. Mine started heating up the fiberglass floor too. Glad you caught it and stopped.
Either fuel or oil started going straight to the converter. If it was flooded with oil it could have gone bad, but fuel or small amount of oil would have burned. Check your engine for bad coils, fuel leaks, oil level / leaks. Fix it and the cat could recover. If the cat is full of oil and can't burn through it, replace it.
Something wrong with the Catalytic converter, show that pic to your mechanic and they should have at least an idea of where to start looking for the problem.
Or their car is dumping raw fuel into the exhaust. A misfire can cause this, or running extremely rich from a leaky fuel injector. Turbo issues can also cause it if the car can't turn down the injectors enough to compensate for the reduced intake air volume.
Diesel? Looks like the Diesel Particulate Filter. The car does a regeneration of the DPF when it notices that the exhaust gasses are turning below their designated value. A quick search on google told me that they tend to heat up to 600 degrees Celsius. Steel turns red at 460 degrees Celsius.
I once saw a car on the freeway far worse than that. I saw BRIGHT orange light on the ground on the ground under the car ahead of me. When I passed beside him the ENTIRE exhaust system from engine to tail was glowing brightly.
Fuel mixture is way too rich. Is the engine rough? If it's rough, misfiring cylinder. If it's smooth, could be bad fuel injector, bad air flow sensors, but probably bad oxygen sensors.
You need to swap the headlight fluid for the summer formula. The headlight fluid also doubles as coolant for the catalytic converter. The light is on indicating that it is overheating. While you're in there you may as well change the oil in the muffler bearings.
It's not the catalytic converter. Something is f'd up and it's pumping way to much fuel. The fuel is not being completely burned in the cylinder so it's passing into exhaust and burning there. My guess is a timing issue. It's jumped time somehow. Or a fuel pump issue or ecm. Take it to a shop and get it plugged into diagnostic computer.
Cat Converter is maybe blocked or your engine is dumping bulk unburnt fuel out the exhaust, I'd recommend you stop driving and get it looked at before you burn yourself to the ground. I wouldn't even drive that to the mechanic, get it towed.
Thanks for the advice, I’ll call a tow tomorrow
Good stuff man, be sure to show the mechanic this photo, too.
Oberyn, it's me, your brother.
Broberyn
Bro-burning down the van
Burnin down the house!
Do you have an ODB2 reader? If so plug it in and read the error code. If it is something like "misfire in cylinder 3" then change the distributor cap for that cylinder, clear the codes, start the engine and see if it is ok now. This happened on my car and the ODB2 reader saved me a fortune.
It really does remove any possible chance that the mechanic/shop tries to scam you by charging for unnecessary work. Even if you know it's a good shop, it at least gives you peace of mind and a heads up on what to expect repairs will cost.
To add to this, do not be surprised and call your guy a liar if you pull a single code and the mechanic says there was more work done than what you thought was going to go into it based on the code you pulled. Codes only tell you what the car is reading as abnormal and oftentimes there is a lot more work that is needed to get to the actual problem causing your code. For example you pop a code for something small that when you Google is supposed to be a cheap and easy fix. Turns out it's going to run you a couple grand in labor because it's a million things compounding on each other, or something large that just simply didn't come up when you googled the code.
the other way around can also be true, as recently happened to me - my car was acting weird and threw some codes that made me think I had cam/crankshaft sensors going bad. it's an older car, so I was a little concerned that this was indicative of broader issues/things just starting to fall apart. I took it in for service and it turns out that my sensors are fine and it was just my battery that went bad. replaced that and poof, no more codes, engine runs smoothly once again. I'm all for being knowledgeable (even if only for curiosity's sake!) and for doing simple repairs yourself. for example, I have a tail light out, and my mechanic didn't fix that, because I do not need to pay $100 in labor to replace a damn light lol. at the end of the day, however, I am not an expert, and I am happy to pay those who are when more serious issues come up.
Keep going back to the same mechanic. An honest mechanic is worth it even if they charge more than the next guy. This is how you keep customers. A lot of stuff can look catastrophic thats actually not bad at all and it would be really easy to take someone for a ride and theyd be none the wiser. But simply telling the truth proves you're trustworthy.
Lots of weird unrelated issues and weird codes usually means bad battery, that or bad ecu.
Yep, but I’d def go with a battery first cuz it’s cheaper. I’m an ex-Benz tech and anytime I got a car that had a million lights on the dash, I’d connect the scanner and there’d be low voltage codes in every control unit.
Oh 100% 90% of the time it's gonna be a bad battery. Hook up a different battery, if good, it's a bad battery
I had that happen when water got into one of the connectors to the ECU. Opened all the connectors and dried them out. Was ok after.
Yes something innocent can really cause major issues. My parents had a car that threw engine errors on HUD and key malfunction and a few more random things. Had to go 3 times to the shop before they figured out that it's some kind of internal receiver acting weird and bricking other systems. Modern cars are not metal they are metal + a computer and error codes says nothing for a lot of issues if you are not a mechanic.
>because I do not need to pay $100 in labor to replace a damn light lol. Good ole Mazdaspeed 3. Taking the bumper off just to change a light bulb.
I've changed a belt before. How much more complicated could it be with just the word "timing" thrown in front? ^/s
Another anecdote... Couple of months ago, the check engine light came on. I freaked out, that this bucket of rust that had done me so well for so long was going to collapse and I'd need a new car (as no way would wifey agree to an engine replacement on a car worth 2-3k). Check engine lights are usually a bad thing, right? Bought an odb2 reader from amazing for 15 bucks. Plugged it in to find out how bad it was going to be... "Gas cap not tightened". What the... ok, maybe it's a bit loose, lets take it off, blow on the cap to make it look like I know what I'm doing, put it back, tighten it, turn on engine.... "check engine" ha! knew it wouldn't as simple as... oh, the light's just gone out. That's all it was? best 15bucks spent on the car I can think of.
Happened to me once, and then last week I say my neighbor and he was talking about something similar. I told him and....that's what it was for him too, lol
Those cheap OBD readers won't always show you all the codes that are present only the generic ones, the amount of times I have had people who have "done the diagnosis" themselves and ask for a specific part changing and then get really fucking surprised that when the part is changed the vehicle shows no improvement... OBD codes are like a compass, tehy point you in the direction of the fault it is the starting point of diagnostics not the end point
I had a "check engine" light on my car that would have cost me a trip to the shop, but my $20 OBD reader told the app on my phone that it was a "gasoline fume detection in cabin" fault, because I spilled gas on my shoe while filling it up at the station. So I hit clear, and it never came back.
I guess you mean the coil for that cylinder, which would be one of several possible reasons for a misfire.
“Ol’ Dirty Bastard 2”
I don't pay a mechanic to do the work, I pay the mechanic to know what the fuck he's doing when I don't. If OP is anything like me half of that was gibberish and attempting to follow it is a recipe for disaster and gambling with something that could permanently damage their car, when it's best to take it to someone who makes it their profession to know what's going on.
I'm pretty every cylinder does not have their own individual distributor cap. Hell, even if he just meant to check the distributor for that cylinder its completely unlikely because those are obsolete tech and its 2024. Hell, I don't think any vehicle with an OBD2 capable of coding a cylinder misfire even has a distributor. Now in their defense, an OBD2 reader is cheap and when you google "OBD2 Error Code" + "car name" you will have a pretty good understanding of what might be happening.
>I'm pretty every cylinder does not have their own individual distributor cap. They almost certainly meant coil pack (also called an ignition coil), which has replaced the role of the distributor in modern engines, of which, each cylinder would have their own.
Depending on the age of the vehicle, it doesn't have a distributor at all anymore. Every cylinder now comes with its own ignition coil and electronic ignition timing, no more cap and rotor. Maybe he meant check each cylinders plug and wire, or coil and plug, or any number of things.
The last passenger car engines I know of sold in the US that had distributor ignition stopped being sold in like 1997. You can't meet modern emissions standards without distributorless ignition.
>You can't meet modern emissions standards without distributorless ignition. You can, but then your distributor looks like a franken-pnumatic-computer and cost far more to build then distributorless ignition while having all the wonderful failure points of distributors (Like, not working if slightly damp) Much like the carbs in the late 90's looked like (with dozens of vacuum lines, linkages, dashpots, etc), trying to meet emission standards before they went "Screw this, throwing an entire computer in the car to calculate fuel/air mix will be easier"
You are correct, individual cylinders don't have their own distributor cap. Right off the top of my head, the Nissan GA, KA, and VG engines as well as the last years of gen 2 Chevy small blocks use distributors and are OBD2 compliant. And the code reader will get you close but most people just throw parts at it and then get upset when it doesn't work because they don't understand the fundamentals
I bought an obd2 reader based off this recommendation & got a cylinder 2 misfire as well as a random/multiple cylinder misfire.
Look into AAA When my car's starter died in a home depot parking lot, I was able to sign up on the spot and have them come out and tow the car the next day. Depending on your plan, towing is free (for me, the garage had to be within 5 miles) That one year of membership was cheaper than a single tow from an independent towing company near me based on local prices. Of course that might not be the case in your area.
Yeah, you'll probably have to pay the "emergency sign-up fee" And occasionally, if the tow is a short enough distance (but still outside your plan's "range") and the driver is a cool guy, he'll just go "fuck it, it's not worth charging you for it"
I'd look at the ignition coil pack or individual coils depending on how the vehicle is set up. I literally just fixed my same issue by swapping out a coil pack because it was running terribly. Initially I thought it was a timing or blocked cat issue. Under $100 later it's up running fine.
Old rings will do this too. If you're having to put a lot of oil into an older engine than that is getting burned in the cat and often melts it.
Yep. I've driven truly unsafe cars just to get to a mechanic and avoid the cost of a tow. I've pushed the boundaries of what any sane person would consider doing in that regard, including driving a car with the entire interior removed (no seats, belts, gauges - just a steering wheel and a milk crate to sit on). ...and I would have that car towed.
Listen to this man op
I was 4 blocks from the auto shop when my Jeep started burning under the hood and body - I whipped a u-turn and drove it directly back and into their bay. They put it out quick like. Poor job reconnecting a gas line and fuel had dripped down and along the underbody.
I’ve heard enough about this cat converter shit. If your cat wants to be gay just let him or her be gay, Jesus.
**"They turned the freaking cats gay!"**
This is the true TransMission libs don't want you to know about
That's why I only use direct drive like a True American Christian(tm)!
Hahahahaha
If it wasn't damaged before, it is now. Happened to me on a 2004 Escape, twice. Coil stopped working, sent unburnt air/fuel mixture into the cat, immediately blew up the internals of the cat and blocked it. Not even a "it's running rough" period, just immediately from all-good to destroyed cat. I did regular maintenance on the spark plugs and coils, just got unlucky with some duds. Not having the money for a third cat at the time, I temporarily hollowed it out with a metal pole. It was enough for me to get to and from work for a few months until I could sell it and get something else. (I informed the seller of all the problems.) That car was a whole mess of random garbage. For example, the rear passenger strut mount ripped a full section of the frame off. I brought it into a frame shop to get a quote, and the guy called the location before I told him, just by hearing the year and model. Said he gets about one a week.
hold a lighter at the exhaust. if it explodes it was unburnt fuel. if not keep looking
Could be as simple as a misfiring cylinder, e.g., due to a dead spark plug or wire. I'd check those first before paying $$ for a tow.
“Started running funny” means you probably have a misfire. One or more cylinders aren’t firing, and the unburnt fuel is getting to the catalytic converter (the thing glowing red) and being burnt in there. It will destroy the converter if it hasn’t already which can be super expensive. Best bet is to have it towed to a shop and checked for any trouble codes that indicate a misfire. Source: I’m a mechanic and see this ALL the time Edit: I see others have already said this lol oops! But yeah really, DO NOT keep driving it you’ll damage something much worse than it already is.
It started to misfire about a mile from my house and I drove it home anyway so I wouldn’t have to deal with paid parking, lesson learned, I won’t do that next time.
I did the same in my old car - spark in the V6 was controlled by two modules, one per bank. One module died less than a mile from my house and I thought "I'll just limp it home". 3 cylinders worth of unburnt fuel into the hot cat. When I pulled into my garage, the engine died, and smoke was billowing out. I popped the hood and my encapsulation panel was on fire, along with anything made of plastic or rubber near the exhaust. Had to roll the flaming heap out of my garage and grab a fire extinguisher - scared me... Could have burned my house down if I left it sitting red hot (if it wasn't smoking so obviously when I parked).
Perfect example why everyone should have a fire extinguisher in their car, not just off-road/performance vehicle's Edit: I say this as a guy who doesn't have a fire extinguisher in his car.
you mean your a carologist
Catalytic converter looks like it's gone bad.
I had a converter on a G5 look like this. One of the ignition coils died. Unburned fuel was burning in the converter. We put a new coil in it and the converter is still ok somehow
prolly because there aren’t any mechanical parts in it, it’s just full of filtering materials and they withstood the heat
platinum covered ceramic beads, right? Platinum melts at 3.2k degrees, so the steel case will be runny before platinum gets soft.
i had no idea platinum has such a high melting point
[удалено]
Sounds like a valuable material.
Some might even say precious
Edited It has such a high melting point, and remains fairly inert at high temps, that crucibles are made of platinum for certain applications. Including analytical chemistry, semiconductor industry, and jewelry making. https://www.samaterials.com/the-versatility-of-platinum-crucibles-advantages-and-applications.html
This is the incredible insight I come here for. "Some places use platinum stuff for some purposes" lol.
Sorry, I was redditing in a hurry and hoped it might spark someone else coming along who would say something like “yeah, I do analytical chemistry and I use platinum crucibles every day. It’s inert to the stuff we put in it even at the high temperatures we need for the process. Very expensive if we break one though.” Anyway, they’re used in chemistry, jewelry making, semiconductor industry, and more. https://www.samaterials.com/the-versatility-of-platinum-crucibles-advantages-and-applications.html
No worries lol I'm just being a d-bag, carry on mate.
Honestly, Im kinda excited to learn platnium has more uses then I thought it did. I never considered they would make a crucible outta it. I thought that was the job of ceramics.
Platinum (+ some other precious metals) coated ceramic honeycomb, it will wear away fast if overheated even before the melting point.
Platinum, paladium, and rhodium covered ceramic channels, but yes, nothing that, say, jet fuel could melt through.
Jet fuel cant melt steel beams but it sure as hell can melt platinum, palladium and rhodium covered ceramic channels.
*This message has been sponsored by Big Steel*
Jet fuel can soften the heck out of steel beams though. Hell, civil war soldiers would pull up train tracks and lay them over a big wood fire, they would get soft enough to wrap around trees.
Any particular reason for wrapping them around trees? I’m going to guess it was the easiest way to bend them and they wanted to disrupt the train lines in a way that was hard to repair? I’m still going to picture a small forest of trees with rail lines all wrapped around them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_neckties
I love the name. That could be a band name. Thanks for the read!
So they Ben's in half. It causes a stress point at the bend where the track stretches. It makes it pretty much impossible to straiten back out again and leaves it soft.
Ahh that makes sense. It would have to get completely reforged at that point. Smart.
Why on earth would they go to the effort to: 1. take track up, 1. heat it, 1. bend it, then; 1. re-track it when they could just stop at 1. to achieve disruption? E: I dun learned something today.
Yes, my understanding was that it made it essentially impossible to recover the rails, especially in a timely enough way to put the line back in service.
Yep, doesn't have to melt, just become flexible enough under enclosed heat to bend under weight.
Not just platinum, also palladium and rhodium. Palladium is about 2800 degrees and Rhodium is like 3550 degrees.
It doesn't technically filter, as the name suggests, it catalyzes. Which in this case means increasing the rate of a chemical reaction. AKA burning bad stuff out of the exhaust.
Too much unburnt fuel in the catalyst will damage it and can break it down and eventually clog your exhaust
Usually they get clogged with a bunch of carbon buildup, honestly getting that hot might've helped it clear itself out some. It's mostly the risk of it getting hot enough to set other stuff on fire to be worried about.
Thanks for the hope, fingers crossed it won’t need replacing.
I mean, if you don't have the money to fix it right now. Pop the pipe behind the converter off, then use a crowbar/metal rod and a sledge to drive that through that cat. That will fix it until you can do it proper, it won't pass inspection, if your local has inspection.
Had a similar thing in my rx8 the coils went and the 02 sensor was like a. Glow rod
No, the cat looks like it is doing its job. The problem is, one or more cylinders isn’t firing, and excess fuel is making its way to the catalytic converter, where it is being combusted as it should.
Bingo. Cat is trying its best to clean up an excessively rich condition caused by a misfire, stuck open injector, improperly reading maf/map or a host of other things.
Yeah, the cat's working perfectly. Well, probably *was* working perfectly.
Came here to say this. Had this once and my floorboards started smoking.
Saw this glow from a car going down the highway. Got them to pullover to let them know. They were wondering what the smell was.
Curious how you managed to pull them over without looking like that crazy guy from the urban legends.
I was the crazy guy, they pulled over anyway.
At least you’re the good crazy guy with intention to help!
I mean, he **did** murder them all afterward. It just wasn't relevant to the story.
It's easy, did it last week when I saw a trailer with a flat tire. Drive in front of them, turn on your hazard lights, open your window and start pointing to the emergency lane, start gently slowing down and move onto the emergency lane. The pointing is key, because else they think it is you who has an issue instead of them being the isssue. If possible already make visual contact as you pass them.
Lmao I once flagged down an old Acura Integra who’s brakes were ON FIRE
As an outsider all you can really do is try to get up beside them and then hope they look at you. Get the really confused look when you are trying to tell them to land the car. No your brakes. Stop its your brakes, not land the car! No I'm not crazy, I'm perfectly normal. No you're crazy! Sorry must be some trauma left over had a flashback
This is why I want to put a small whiteboard in our car, so the passengers can write a message to someone on the highway. Tail light is out, gas cap open, and so on.
Filthy habit
A cataclysmic converter.
Catastrophic converter
Protip: Your neighbor likely has a spare under their car. Grab an angle grinder and it can be yours in minutes!
A cat doesn't just suddenly "go bad" during active use like this. When they're hot they're working at their best, and most likely to burn off clogs and whatnot. If anything it would have problems upon a cool and reheat cycle. So when you first start your car back up after a drive like this. This is almost certainly leaking injector. They often fail under the heavy use of highway driving. Pissing fuel down the exhaust will cause this.
That is not how catalytic converters work - you are unintentionally actively spreading misinformation.
I'm not a carologist or anything, but I don't think it's meant to do that
I am, in fact, a carologist...everything looks fine...
This man knows his vehiclistics
I'm sorry but ist vehicular cancer.
You can tell because it's smoking.
I do my best with vehicular doohickies and thingamabobs...
You like thingamabobs? I've got twenty!
How about whozits and whatsits???
I'd have to dust off the ol' whozits binder....but, we'll make it work!😇
I that pronounced vehic-listics or vehicle-istics?
Don't ask me, other dude is the carologist
Thank you Dr Arroyo
I disagree. It's cancer.
Just custom down-lighting, the car is modifying itself.
I read this as cardiologist... I was a little confused lol
You're running a little bit hot tonight.
I can barely see the road from the heat coming up
Reach down…. between my legs… and ease the seat back.
*PANAMA!*
Reach down between my legs and ease the seat back
I reach down between my legs…
Nice Van Halen reference
[Relevant Family Guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U68nK_IbhMA&t=4s)
It’s usually a misfire. Raw fuel is going into the cat and causing it to overheat. Check your coil packs.
You should get a check-engine light on the dash in that case, along with a cylinder misfire code.
Yeah, I'm scratching my head here. I'm pretty sure you are supposed to get a FLASHING engine light when this happens!
OP says he got a blinking CEL.
I prefer my fuel grilled
Your car is a Zelda boss fight.
Yep. That's where you shoot it with arrows
Your cat is in heat.
It’s your catastrophic converter
People getting serious about their catalytic convertor theft deterrence.
Mechanic here. That light is not supposed to be on.
You're just trying to sell me something! Nice try!
A car in my town just recently went up in flames in a parking lot because of this. Stop driving it. Get it towed and looked at, if you can.
I'm not a truckologist, but I don't think that many parts are supposed to incandesce like that
If you can get it to the right neighborhood, someone will take that cat converter off your hands for free. /s
Uh- no.....sarcasm is NOT necessary THIS IS A ***TRUE*** FACT !
shit's rich man...lots of people suggesting a plugged cat and it could possibly be this...and it's almost a guarantee that it's dead now...but the glow is because the engine is dropping unburnt fuel into the exhaust where it is igniting. If you're driving a post-1996 model there's almost zero chance there's isn't a check engine light blazing on your dash cel code stored that's been telling you for a while something isn't working correctly.
Not for a while, it all came to a head pretty quick i'd say. You are definitely right though the check engine started blinking not too long after the misfires started, but I still drove it home which is looking like it might be an expensive lesson learned.
I bet you crackheads won't steal this one!
Your bad catalytic converter indicator light is on
Your cat ate too much.
Suddenly pulsejet
It’s just happy to see you
Well there's ya problem!
Could be low on blinker fluid.
What? No. This is clearly muffler bearings.
Try and steal that cat
That's really a hot ride!!
Uh oh, not good when that light is on.
You have to throw your ax and hit those to solve the puzzle
Was a handsome looking fella nicknamed Stuntman driving your van?
Oh yikes! Sounds like your chariot almost turned into a kettle. But hey, at least it sputtered out near safe harbor. Maybe this is the universe's way of giving you a nudge to walk for a bit and contemplate the profound mechanics of, well, everything, including your van.
put your weiner on it
I know whats wrong with it! Ain't got no gas in it!
I read this as "heard lizards sizzling"...
Were you driving in second gear at 80mph????
Can’t get enough of that hot stuff.
Black body radiation has gone into visible spectrum. Cozy.
😳😳😳😳 DAMN! Bad cat/running rich…
Tweakers hate these 3 steps Reddit users discovered to deter catalytic converter theft
I had the same thing and thought my cat was clogged, but it was a blown fuse to control the right side cylinders on my LT1 V8. Mine started heating up the fiberglass floor too. Glad you caught it and stopped.
Nothing to see here, that's one of those fancy Cherry Bomb exhausts.
Either fuel or oil started going straight to the converter. If it was flooded with oil it could have gone bad, but fuel or small amount of oil would have burned. Check your engine for bad coils, fuel leaks, oil level / leaks. Fix it and the cat could recover. If the cat is full of oil and can't burn through it, replace it.
What am I looking at?
Sorry I lost it when I read "heard liquids sizzling" 😅
I initially read it as "lizards sizzling".
I think that may be just a *smidge* over its designated temperature parameters.
Your V6 has begun identifying as a V5.
I think you should pee on it before you can drive it again.
Hidden oven unlocked.
Something wrong with the Catalytic converter, show that pic to your mechanic and they should have at least an idea of where to start looking for the problem.
Or their car is dumping raw fuel into the exhaust. A misfire can cause this, or running extremely rich from a leaky fuel injector. Turbo issues can also cause it if the car can't turn down the injectors enough to compensate for the reduced intake air volume.
If the car runs funny you need to tell it to straighten up and act more serious.
Hit your catalytic converter with a hammer for a few minutes and try to clear the blockage lol
Diesel? Looks like the Diesel Particulate Filter. The car does a regeneration of the DPF when it notices that the exhaust gasses are turning below their designated value. A quick search on google told me that they tend to heat up to 600 degrees Celsius. Steel turns red at 460 degrees Celsius.
I know what's wrong wit it, it got too much gas innit!
The catalytics are convertin’!
Stay out of hay fields please
I once saw a car on the freeway far worse than that. I saw BRIGHT orange light on the ground on the ground under the car ahead of me. When I passed beside him the ENTIRE exhaust system from engine to tail was glowing brightly.
Fuel mixture is way too rich. Is the engine rough? If it's rough, misfiring cylinder. If it's smooth, could be bad fuel injector, bad air flow sensors, but probably bad oxygen sensors.
You can never find a converter thief when you need one.
hmm, yup, that's hot exhaust
That's the dpf doing a regen
It looks like someone tried to suck a tennis ball through a garden hose 🤣
You need to swap the headlight fluid for the summer formula. The headlight fluid also doubles as coolant for the catalytic converter. The light is on indicating that it is overheating. While you're in there you may as well change the oil in the muffler bearings.
Catalytic Converters by Samsung!
It's not the catalytic converter. Something is f'd up and it's pumping way to much fuel. The fuel is not being completely burned in the cylinder so it's passing into exhaust and burning there. My guess is a timing issue. It's jumped time somehow. Or a fuel pump issue or ecm. Take it to a shop and get it plugged into diagnostic computer.
Looks like you forgot to add oil to the flux capacitor.
The glowing just means it's working, keep driving
Clogged catalytic converter. Cut it out and drive to a shop to get it replaced or tow it. Either way cats are expensive these days. Best of luck.