0420 code! Catalyst System

[Tony T]

Could use a little help from the Gen III crowd. My 96 SHO stored code P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1) Have any of you had this code show up? Does anyone know what the fix is? No other codes were stored! The car has 77K on it.

 

[stephen newberg]

Sounds like either you have exhaust blockage off the #1 bank or the converter for that bank is no longer up to *****. Or both, with the blockage in the converter. Likely replacement time. The warranty on the emissions gear is very long (at least 5 years), and you might still be in it, so I would get down to the dealership promptly to see if they will put in a new one (or two, if you can talk them into one failing means the other is about to) for free.

pax
smn

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'98, Black
Mod.Porter intake, K&N panel, SARC cutout, instrumentation cluster, 23mm rear swaybar, 245x50x16 Bridgestone Potenzas

 

[Tony T]

Thanks for the advice. Your were right about the warranty except the Ford emmision warranty is "8-80" (8yr or 80k miles). I took the car to a dealer today and code 0420 is definitely a bad thing to have! Ford is replacing all three converters! I barely made the 80K part of the warranty. Had 77,865 when I droped it off today. I'm going to do some more research on the 8-80 warranty. Apparently, Ford doesn't want everyone to know about this!

[This message has been edited by Tony T (edited 07-25-2001).]

 

[98BigSHO]

It an US Govt mandated so the big three have to comply with it. This is a direct result of the emission laws passed by congress for the EPA. This helps us alot, but most people dont read their manual to see that this warranty exsists. It helps us out due to the fact anything connect to the PCM is emissions.

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Mac's 98 SHO
Pictures: http://www.iland.net/~blueoval