If you think your having a bad day

tr21triton

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Blue Ridge, Ga
fellas let me tell you about a bad day. get in my 05 jeep Rubicon to take the trash and run a few errands. I get up the road to a big hill and she barely makes it over it and seems to clear up. well 10 miles from the house it just has zero power and I'm crawling along so I turn around and limp her back home. Talked to @AndyG and believe it's plugged cats but need a IR thermometer to check it. get the one from the kitchen and it's dead. no problem I'll grab one while I'm in town. get in my '97 Jeep Sahara and head to town. within site of where I turned around in my other Jeep smoke pours out of the right wheel, so I pull over and let the rotor cool off and limp it back to the house. now I have 3 vehicles, but my Ram is in the shop having a recall done on it ! so here I sit in my recliner afraid to even go outside, hope my recliner doesn't break !!!!
 
Sorry to hear that. Sounds like you have my luck. I found a solution for you. ;)
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my 05 Rubi just lost power and would barely make it up a hill. when taking off it just had no power what so ever and the engine had a weird moan to it no grinding or popping or pinging. it was running a little hotter than usual not a lot maybe 220 or 225 it normally runs dead on 210. I was thinking fuel pump but andyg thinks plugged cats .
 
my 05 Rubi just lost power and would barely make it up a hill. when taking off it just had no power what so ever and the engine had a weird moan to it no grinding or popping or pinging. it was running a little hotter than usual not a lot maybe 220 or 225 it normally runs dead on 210. I was thinking fuel pump but andyg thinks plugged cats .

I think you can pull your upstream O2 sensors to try and diagnose a plugged cat. If performance improves with the O2 out, that's a good indication that your cat is plugged.
 
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Yep - the Gods and Angels do NOT want him out of the house today. Something bad gonna happen somewhere where he was going to be.

Yes, we all generally like him to stay home too😆

He is part of that group over there that was buying 150 septic tanks- said when they learned to drive them they plan to invade Alabama.

He will be ok... Tr21 is knows how to survive. Pretty good ol’ boy.
 
so does anybody have a good source for getting catalytic converters from? prices are all over the place. I mean like from $400 to $1600 crazy ! not sure thats my problem yet but want to be ready if it is
 
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so got a IR thermometer and the tops of my cats are 390 degrees and the bottoms are 590 degrees ! anybody have any ideas ? no CEL just no power !
 
so got a IR thermometer and the tops of my cats are 390 degrees and the bottoms are 590 degrees ! anybody have any ideas ? no CEL just no power !

The temperature rise indicates they are at least working, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't at least partially clogged.

I'd bet there's a diagnostic section for it in the fsm....

Edit: found on magnaflows website, I've heard of this before but I've never had a cat fail to actually try it on one that's failed.

  • Engine vacuum: If there is no check engine light on or your vehicle was built before 1996 (pre-OBDII), then an engine vacuum test may be necessary if there are other warning signs. When the engine is idling, hook up a vacuum gauge to the intake manifold and record the reading. Then, rev the engine to 2,500 RPM (a helper will make this easier) and observe the measurement again. If the gauge doesn’t return to a similar reading as it showed when idling, or it is very slow to do so, the converter could be faulty.
 
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