My 1996 toyota camry may have bad catalytic converter or oxygen sensor?

Question

My check engine light has been coming on in my Camry> my car has 120k miles on it. I just bought it recently last month. Car was well maintained and my mechanic looked at the engine said it was in good shape. Anyway, I had a Sears mechanic plug a device up to the engine to see where the problem is occuring. He says its either the catalytic converter or the oxygen 2 sensor. Catalytic converters are expensive! $1500! They told me not to worry about it because they said the engine runs and sounds great! They were surprised on how well the engine sounded. They also told me to leave it alone. They said if it is oxygen sensor then it wont harm the engine but your engine light will stay on. Which annoys me. Does anyone have any expert advice here? There are no funny smells, no rattling, no white or black smoke coming out of exhaust,no stalling...car runs very good. It does vibrate a little at intersections. Do you think its the catalytic converter? I need an expert opinion.

Answer 1

That mechanic is an idiot. You can get a generic O2 sensor for $40 http://www.autozone.com/R,APP233743/vehicleId,2145801/initialAction,partProductDetail/store,1108/partType,00117/shopping/partProductDetail.htm
And a Catalytic converter for $85. http://www.autozone.com/R,APP117982/vehicleId,2145801/initialAction,partProductDetail/store,1108/partType,00071/shopping/partProductDetail.htm
That car is at the age where you'd expect those two things to need replacing.
You might see if Midas will give you a good price.
Those links are for the 4 cylider. If you have a 6, it'll be slightly different.

Answer 2

I would start with the cheapest part first. O2 sensors for your car start at $80.00. I do not recall if your car has 1 or 2 of them. I am thinking it has 2. A pre cat sensors and a post cat sensor. after replacing them, if you still have an MIL then you need to replace the Cat. the post O2 is receiving information that is putting it out of spec. the Sears mechanic lied to you in saying it's not hurting anything. It's hurting your gas mileage as well as causing your car to not run as clean emission whys as it should. This is something that should be addressed very quickly if you want to get the maximum miles per gallon out of your car. It is true that most cats are spent after 100K and should be replaced. most Catalytic manufactures even say to get optimum performance out of the cat they should be replaced every 60K. I personally say leave it tell you need it. but there is a chance it is bad. start with the o2's and see if the MIL (Check engine light) goes out. If not save your money and get a new cat.

Answer 3

There is no need to replace a Toyota converter unless it was smashed in underbody incident. Do NOT use a generic O2 sensor. FIRST STEP costs about $20-40. Get can of gunk engine cleaner. Can of chlorinated brake cleaner and gumout spray. Remove distributor cap and spray clean with gumout and brake cleaner. It's location attracts oil vapors that them cause small misfires at idle. Go to DIY car wash and power wash engine. Then take $20-30 to local oil change center and have THROTTLE BODY and IDLE AIR CONTROL VALVE cleaned up to showroom clean. Stumble at idle is NOT from dirty injectors. There are lots of cleaners and detergents in modern low sulfur fuel to keep them clean. All issues stem from the AIR INTAKE side of things. Bad oil choices make tarry sludge that eventually bakes into sensors and into engine alloys as well. You can tell if you remove oil fill cap and see dark brown deposits. I use Amsoil Power Foam to rid engine of this tarry debris. Once IAC is showroom clean and distr

Answer 4

With 120K miles they are both probably bad, if you hooked an OBDII code reader to your car it will tell you what is wrong, each sensor and cat converter has it's own code..... it is easy to tell, so that mechanic either didnt know what he was doing, or just didnt tell you correctly. A cat converter for your car will not cost 1500, he is trying to rip you off, you can get them off of ebay for around $50 and pay $100 to have it installed.

Answer 5

I think all cars when they hit 100k have a check engine light come on and 9 times out of 10 it has to do with the oxygen sensor. Mine came on at 44k, go figure! I would do nothing, unless your car can't pass inspection. It is very common for oxygen sensors to go out (they're cheap to replace), and for catalytic converters to to out, which I'm surprised you were quoted under $2,000. That's probably about what you paid for the car, huh?

Answer 6

I just replaced a sensor in a 99 2.2.If it's a California car the sensor is several dollars higher because of emitions.I bought the wrong one for $122.00.Ended up having Calif.car and it went up to $196.00.Mine was the sensor before the converter.Easy to install.

Answer 7

In New York state that light has to be off for the state inspection, if it is on you may not be getting the best fuel mileage that you can so in my opinion have someone look at it and fix it correctly.

Answer 8

if its the catylytic convertor it will smell like rotten eggs.that is caused by constantly putting in low grade gas.run good stuff once in while.its the oxygen sensor cause the engine light is on.if where you live requires an emission test then you will have to fix it.