Cool. I will keep an eye on it tomorrow. As for now the KIA is still under observation but we expect a clean bill of health.
Cool! That is the key word Keys! As Mr Dewey wrote, after the car heats and cools several times will tell the tale. COOL MAN !
Not out of the woods yet... There is still signs of a leak. From where I dont know. Its small but there is evidence nonetheless... More later.
Damn the luck! If you can find the leak it may be a small pin hole somewhere, if you use a stop leak product, might I suggest Bar's Leak heavy duty stop leak with water pump lube. Despite the sound it's not a thick heavy additive and seems to work well on small leaks.
Oh Im having plethora of problems right now. Can a catalytic converter make rattling noises and somehow bog down the car. Im about to b!tc4 slap me a car designer.!.
If the carbon inside crystalizes (usually from fuel contamination) the carbon breaks into chunks, these chunks can shift around and rattle but more importantly all shift to one spot blocking exhaust flow (making it bog down). The cause of the fuel contamination is usually O2 sensor related from too much raw fuel going into the cat. you can "hollow out" the cat. for a temporary fix (this involves removing the cat. and basically knocking out the pre screens then all the carbon) but this will usually cause the down stream or "bank 2" sensor to get a weird reading and send a check engine code. Your Kia will run better for a while but your gas mileage will probably be not very good. Also a side effect of a bad cat. is exhaust temps of an extreme nature in excess of 500 degrees, this in turn makes the shield on the outside expand and pop the welds that hold it on which makes them rattle like crazy at certain RPM's it sounds like the whole exhaust is coming off. You can clamp or remove the shields as a temporary fix, but the shielding is there for a reason, the cat. temps are very high and can melt wiring, floor boards, etc...
It COULD be just the bottom of the shield that has come loose. When the car is COLD get under and check that. IF that's the case, cut the bottom part of the loose shield off and the rattle is gone.
Im sorry. We are done with this car. Everything Dewey described matches with this car medical past. I know for a fact that gas got in the cat. A lot of gas. And there has been a rattle for over six months whenever the car gets hot. This car has brought me the Forum, education, and friends I both love and appreciate, but this car was designed to fail and our budget can no longer keep up. Zoe and I have agreed $2400 firm. I had to talk her down that far but...
... but I know that it wont take long before she agrees to drop it further. She has hes first paid vacation coming up soon and she is going up to Chicago to scout for places and jobs. We cant take the car with us and the closer Chicago gets to us the lower the price on the KIA has to go... I know I can do the work but I cant afford the costs. Worse yet, I havent told Zoe yet that the rad still has a tiny leak...
Xav, I would say while the Kia is somewhat in good working order it's time to unload it for sure. The catalytic converter is in excess of $300.00 for a bolt on and the universal version is about $140.00, I'm pretty confident at this point it and both O2's will need to be replaced. With the seemingly endless things that seem to be happening to this car I think you're smart to be letting it go.
I know. I wanted to save it so much. It really is a good car. On a side note I am curious, would drilling a hole in the exhaust pipe just before the cat help in any way with the engine bogging?
It might, it's the same theory as the backyard mechanic trick by taking out the O2 in front of the cat. to see if it's plugged. It will be noisier (if you drilled a hole) for sure, but should restore the power if it's a clogged cat. You could also, as I wrote above, remove the pre-cat oxygen sensor and take it for a short spin to see if it fixes the bogging issue then you can put it back in and drill a small hole as you suggested. The only problem being is the hole would have to repaired later.
Well...you aren't going to like the sound it makes if you do that, Xav. Neither will a prospective buyer. Better off taking it off and beating the crap out of it IMHO. Literally. Then reinstall it. And I want to go on record here to say that the things you are experiencing with that car are normal maintenance items that will pop up with any car.
