Why Three-way Catalytic Converters don’t Cost Three Dollars?

We know that three-way catalytic converters generally start from vehicle failure.It’s not cheap to change a new one for less than a few hundred yuan or more than ten thousand yuan. Why don’t we talk about the three-way catalyst today? Why is it expensive? How to spend less money and change less bad?

What It Does

We can think of the three-way catalytic converter simply as an“Environmental protection device” on a vehicle. In recent years, air pollution has been getting more and more attention, and China’s six-nation emission standards have become higher. Three-way catalytic converters have become even more important-in short, inhaling harmful gases and exhaling harmless ones. The purifying agent in the three-way catalyst will enhance the activity of CO, HC and NOx in the automobile exhaust gas, causing it to carry on certain redox and finally become harmless gas.

Why Expensive

People who have changed know that three-way catalytic converters are really expensive. Some cars cost tens of thousands of yuan, which can be as much as one-tenth of the cost of a car. There are two main reasons why it is so expensive.

One is because it contains precious metals. The three-way catalyst consists of shell, damping layer, carrier and catalyst coating. Rare metals such as Pt (platinum) , Rh (Rhodium) , PD (palladium) and rare earth metals including CE (cerium) and LA (lanthanum) are used in the catalyst-coated materials. That’s why they recycle three-way catalytic converters.It is also the reason why the old drivers take away the old three-way catalytic converter when they change the new one.

Second, because the production of high technical requirements. On the market can make high-quality three-way catalytic converter manufacturers, so also raised the price of three-way catalytic converter. Of course, there are low-cost three-way catalytic converters, but we have to pay attention to the quality of three-way catalytic converters will not only cause the vehicle power, fuel consumption and other negative effects, but also affect the vehicle inspection. And the service life will be greatly shortened, the overall cost is not small.

Failure & Cause

The common faults of three-way catalyst are:

1.The fault lamp is lit, the general fault code is P0420 or P0421(representing low conversion efficiency).

2.The exhaust gas exceeds the standard, which affects the inspection vehicle.

3. Will cause the vehicle to accelerate slowly, poor power.

4.Other problems, such as abnormal sound, melting, fragmentation, falling off.

There are three reasons for this failure:

The first is the quality of fuel, fuel in the lead and sulfur and lubricants in the phosphorus and zinc will cause greater harm to the three-way catalyst.Lead is the most harmful. Some studies show that even if only a box of leaded gasoline has been used, it will cause serious failure of three-way catalytic converter. But our country has already realized the car gasoline unleaded, this already need not worry.

Second to consider the engine fault, such as engine misfire, too thick or too thin mixture, engine oil burning, etc. , will also have a serious impact on the three-way catalytic converter.

Finally is the design life, the vehicle use of three-way catalytic converter no serious fault, can be used for its natural aging, car friends save a lot of trouble.

How To Protect

So important and so expensive, how do we extend the life of a three-way catalyst?

The most direct way is to clean regularly, the recommended cleaning cycle is 40-50,000 km. Oil selection to meet the requirements of the original vehicle, do not let the oil level exceed the oil gauge limit. (some VW models have“Too much oil in the engine room will damage the catalytic reactor” notice, VW drivers can pay attention to)

Also choose fuel to meet the requirements of the vehicle, do not run out of fuel, as far as possible to keep sufficient fuel. Fuel additives can not use manganese, iron products.