New CAT Converter story....

[jlift]

So I go back to the dealers when I get the little post card telling me my part is in (Cat Converter - Sulfur smell). I get up early on Saturday, drive 5 miles to the dealership, drop off my car and take the bus home. I get home and in 15 minutes I get a call telling me that I can pick up my car because the 02 sensor "seized" when they tried to remove it. That means that they started work on my car in about 30-45 minutes, as I timed the bus wait and getting home. I wonder if anyone knows if an 02 sensor can be pulled while an engine is still hot, or should they have waited until the exhaust system cooled down? When told me that I can pick up the car and drive it until they get a new sensor in, that's all they told me. He was ready to say goodbye to me when I asked him "Does it have a check engine light?" He told me "yes". Now I am mad that I had to ask him and he didn't tell me up front that I would be driving around with a CEL for three days (Holiday weekend - closed on Monday). When I questioned him further about driving around with the CEL, he said "no problem, it's not a drivability issue". I politely declined and told him that I have another car that I can drive for a couple of days.

As I started thinking about this, I drove back down the dealership about a few hours later and got ahold of the service writer and asked him to explain in detail what happened. Just so happens that the mechanic who was working on my car showed up and the service writer tells me to talk to him. So the mechanic takes me back to the service area shows me the cat converter, explains to me that this is a recurring problem when they try to remove 02 sensors, that since the sensors and the pipe and made of "dissimilar" metals, after a while they get frozen to each other and when they order a new converter they usually order a new sensor just in case they need one. But the crew who ordered my cat. converter did not order the sensor at the same time so now they need to get the sensor. This mechanic told me he has been working for Toyota for 23 years and this is a big problem with Toyotas. I priced the sensor in the parts department and it was over $200 (heated 02 sensor)

So now I am wondering why Toyota does not try to fix this problem since it seems to me that they are losing money in the form of not being able to reuse an existing perfectly good 02 sensor, once it gets "frozen" into the pipe. Also I am writing this as a word of caution that if anyone intends on getting their Cat. Converter replaced under this TSB, be SURE TO ASK THE SERVICE REP. TO ORDER THE 02 SENSOR---JUST IN CASE!!.