So two months ago my wife pulled a CEL on the way home and we took the car in for service. The dealership found that the 3-way cat is no longer functioning properly. Probably rotted out from sitting on the lot for so long before I bought it. Anyway, they got three cats in from Chrysler and all of them were the wrong part. Apparently they are all for the regular one and no special part was ever created for the SRT-6. They tell me now that the Germans have checked all the stock there and they are all the wrong part. So I called the local Mercedes dealer and the parts don't match up with a C32 or SLK32 either. I'm thinking two things now, 1.) No one else has ever ordered one of these before, and 2.) The part is unique to the SRT-6 only and no more exist so they're going to have to make some more of these. Has anyone ever had any of your cats fail, particularly the 3-way, and if so, do you happen to have the part number, because Chrysler seems to be having a devil of a time with this.

 

Stop using obscure lingo, if you don"t mind. What the heck is a three way cat? The only part I know of unique to our SRT is the nut that holds the wheel.

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean by obscure lingo... The part is called a 3-way catalytic converter. There are 4 cats in our cars, two in parallel up front after the exhaust manifolds, the 3-way that merges those two pipes together into one and a forth behind it. I think the part is unique because it, according to my dealer, does not match the normal Crossfire's and Mercedes faxed me a full compliment of exhaust parts diagrams for the SLK320 and SLK32, as well as one for the C32. The two AMG cars that share our motor have 4 cats, but they have two pipes with 2 on each pipe. The 320 has a 3-Way in the rear of the car, before the muffler, but it doesn't look like it would match either since it is off-center and is asymmetrical. I suspect that this Cat is "unique" in the way that our dashboard is unique; they lit it with green lamps and wrote SRT on it. This is probably the normal 3-way with a different flange or something... Agreed with the nut holding the wheel thing.

 

These are the only cats I could find at 1stChryslerParts.com. Is that what you're after?

 

Are these the parts they ordered?

 

Wow... this is not good news. Now that MB and Chrysler have split I fear that we are only going to see more and more of these nuances popping up left and right. It is the perfect storm of problems since not only is there the MB and Chrysler split, but also our car was a very special limited production model and not generally acknowledged and as someone mentioned before, it seems like some parts may be damn near identical to the N/A Crossfire parts but with some minor detail making them just that different. As time passes, this small stockpile of parts unique to our cars is being depleted and it doesn't seem like the best of records are being kept as to what is what and what goes where to replenish them.

 

It sounds more like they are trying to get out of replacing them because they cost more than $3,000 to replace and they should be covered under the emissions warranty.

 

I dont know where they put a '3 way cat' on your SRT. Both of mine have 4 cats, 2 per side. Then they feed into the resonator and back to the the muffler. Thats all there is on an SRT6. Two left cats, two right cats, resonator, muffler and some pipe.

MikeR

 

All i read is "3-way" and "my wife"..... giggity giggity!!

 

According to the SRT6 service manual, Exhaust section, Section 11, page 3. (11-3).

here is the page in question. It DOES mention a three way catalytic converter. Although the picture shows two separate converters and a dual pipe back to what looks like the main muffler.

If your system looks different (take a picture), then there is some serious descrepencies between the SRT6 service manual and real life.

Let us know!

 

Three way cats have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with how many pipes are coming/going out of it. The term "three way" is from the different oxidation "levels" to clean the exhaust.

TWC's are gonna reduce NOx (not nitrous) but oxides of nitrogen. Because the atmosphere contains around 78% nitrogen there's no way currently to get rid of this gas. Oxides of Nitrogen is how "acid rain" is formed. With combustion chamber temps approaching 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, this is when NOx forms. At lower temps, just nitrogen gas escapes, but with the high heat, it bonds to Oxygen molecules.

TWC's will also strip and store oxygen with the Cerium and Cesium elements within along with the Platinum-Palladium mesh inside the cat. If you were to split on in half you'd see the Monolithic or honeycomb design.
Carbon Monoxide is oxidized into Carbon Dioxide which is much more harmless (CO into CO2) Unburnt fuel (also known as HC's or hydrocarbons) are oxidized into Carbon Dioxide and water.

Even though water comes from comnustion that don't mean you can drink the tailpipe. There's also Hydrogen peroxide and "heavy water"- byproduct of nuclear reactors in very small quantities.

The difference between a two way and three way cat is the addition of NOx cleansing.

So the amount of chemical reactions make a Three Way Cat a three way cat...
reducing Nox
Oxidizing CO
Oxidizing unburnt fuel

Mr. Wizard take that!!!


Justin

 

Now that is a lesson....thanks, Mr. Professor....oops jeep2xfire...

 

As JEEP2XFIRE said it is just another level of cleansing of the exhaust. Anyway all emission systems are covered for 5 years regardless of any warranty. This is mandated by the good ole feds. So I would believe the cat would have to be avilable, or a suitable replacement.

 

yep, I had an exhaust cat fail on my '92 Camaro Z-28...of course we didn't find that was the problem until spending countless hours trying to diagnose the problem...GM replaced throttle body, 'puter, everything...the car would just quit with no warning...had to be towed 3 different times...finally long after the warrantee ran out, I was in the garage, moved the car out, heard a rattling noise, like metal in the exhaust...cat had rusted out, plugging the outlet just enough at times to shut down the engine...puters..GM researched all that had been done, replaced it even though it was out of warrantee due to the 5 yrs emmissions clause...so go after these guys and tell them to fix it..

 

If for some reason warranty does not cover it, just take them off or buy a universal cat to replace them with. They run about $35 each.

 

I would check out my post here if I were you.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...38&postcount=3

 

The emissions warranty is not unlimited mileage, it usually runs out at 80k. Not that anyone here is anywhere close to that, but just to correct some of the info that it's 5 Years period, there is a mileage limitation.

 

Sadly no, those are the front 2. There is one in the middle after those and one more after that.

 

I got a call from the service manager today asking me to bring the car in so they can put it on the lift and take a picture of the current 3-way. That inspires confidence, as if he'd said "could you bring that car in, we'd love to see one.", lol.

 

That's a great sign, if that's really how it's set up then it matches my C32. That would be a good thing in the availability of parts department.