Been driving my truck around that I picked up a few weeks ago. Bought it privately so no warranty. Its been making this ticking noise so I brought it so an exhaust shop to have them check it out cause thats where it sounded like it was coming from. Got a call saying that the cats were all bad and that it needed new ones. He told me that there are four Cats on my 02 f150 4x4 and that Ford is the only place where we can get them for the truck. He quoted me $2500 with the ford Cats. He then said that he could send them out to have them rebuilt for around $200 a cat. This is driving me nuts...any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

umm... I'd live with the ticking.

anyways, I've never heard of a cat being 'rebuilt'. Starting to sound like a snow job to me.

 

Jeze, mark that shop down on your list of where to never take it again. For one, I don't believe anything is wrong with your cats, you would have gotten at least a missfire code. And two, you can put any after market cat on it that you want ( around $50 bucks, shipping included on ebay). And three, I'm in NC and I'll drive up to CT and do the job (with new OEM Ford Cat's ) myself for $2500. I can get them wholesale from ford for I think $212 a side, and their bolt on peices.

 

Thought so. Stuff didn't seem right and it was looking like it was going to cost me $1000 to fix. I had never heard of anything like this and thought that maybe I was wrong. Glad I checked it with you guys. Looks like I will be taking it somewhere else. Thanks again

 

A more common tick from the exhaust is leaking manifolds caused by broken studs where the manifolds attach to the heads.

 

The only way cats could possibly cause a "ticking" noise is if the internals were breaking up.

BTW, you have an 8/80 federally-mandated warranty on your cats.....
If you're under 80K miles, they're covered.

Steve

 

I am not recommending this at all but, I have known some to remove the internals from the Cats.......but of course, this would not be legal so I can no recommend it.

Cats do not tick......Cats do not cost $2500 to replace, unless of course you are driving a Ferrari or Lamborgini!!!!!

Tell that exhaust shop to stick it.....

 

My truck did the same thing - 02 F150 FX4. There is actually a factory TSB for ticking catalytic converters. TSB # 04-20-6. Nothing wrong with the converters is basically what the bulletin says "Do NOT Replace Catalytic Converters" to be exact, but Ford has came up with some sort of wrap/shield "kit" to eliminate the noise. Cost $600 for the kit and its only available from dealer.

 

The truck is over 100,000 for miles so no warranty on the cat anymore...I wish it was though. He told me that pieces of the cat started to break free and thats what caused the ticking. He could be pulling one on me. He also said that an aftermaket cat will cause a Check engine light because the O2 sensors will not be in the right spots.

 

You have 2 O@'s on each side. 1 before the cat, and one after.

 

So do they even have to touch the O2 sensors when replacing the cats or no?

 

Not sure on your truck where the O2's are exactly but on my 4.2 they are before and after the cat but all on the same pipe and would need to be taken out to change the forward cats.

Agreeing with all those above, not likely a cat issue.

 

Yes they would, The down pipe with the cats in it, is where the o2's are located.

 

Ask your exhaust guy how much he would charge to clean the cats out and leave a hollow shell....for "testing purposes" of course....

If he says the stuff, honeycomb material, is broken up and loose inside than it should not be a big deal to ream them out.

Now, this would be for testing purposes only. You would need to do something if you have an emissions inspection in your area but your test could last for a very long time.

I recall someone that I knew very well that had a Mustang with a 5 liter that was able to pass the emissions inspection with the cats that had been hollowed out for testing. I also know someone that had a Pontiac Firebird (I know, bad word) with a heavily modified small block in it that passed an emissions test too, again, the cat was modified for testing. So, just depends on what you want to do....

You will not get a check engine light if the cats are modified for testing.....experience tells me that.

 

You can put a test pipe on, but it is a felony for him to gut the cats for any purpose except recovering the precious metals out of it. Besides, if that guy charges $2500 to replace $500 bucks worth of bolt on parts, how much do you think he'd charge to do some actual work?