DTC P0420 and P0430 - Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold. Autodiagnosis54: Low Catalyst Efficiency (Error P0420, P0430)

In modern cars, manufacturers install catalytic converters in order to reduce pollution. environment. The catalyst burns unburnt fuel in the engine, thereby reducing CO and CH emissions while achieving EURO3 or higher emissions standards.

The catalyst itself is made using rare earth metals, so its cost is quite high. Also, the catalyst is quite capricious to the quality of the fuel and to the general technical condition engine. If the engine "eats" oil, or at the stage of formation fuel-air mixture the mixture "riches" - this affects the catalyst in an extremely bad way, its service life is significantly reduced. Working temperature catalyst is 600-800 degrees, overheating of the catalyst has an extremely negative effect on its service (and can lead to a car fire), and underheating (for example, during short engine warm-ups on auto-warm-up of the alarm) leads to clogging and exit from working condition.

The most common type of catalyst failure is its partial “cell clogging”, and, accordingly, the loss of part bandwidth and the efficiency of "afterburning" of unburned fuel. In such cases, the engine control unit (based on the readings of the oxygen sensors installed after the catalyst) detects unburned fuel in the exhaust, writes fault P0420 (P0430 for vehicles with 2 main catalysts) into its memory and "lights" the lamp on the instrument panel " check engine". In some cases, car owners with such errors complain about insufficient engine power.

There are several ways to solve the problems of low efficiency of the catalyst, the simplest, most correct and expensive is to replace catalytic converter on new.

More a budget option- transfer of the car to another EURO2 toxicity standard. This can be done in two ways - "reflash" the engine control unit to the EURO2 standard by disabling the oxygen sensors after the catalyst or installing an electronic emulator (dummy) of the catalyst. In both the first and second cases, the catalyst itself can be removed from exhaust system. When installing a dual-channel emulator, it is also possible to fine-tune the system, because. the electronic emulator has options for adjusting such parameters as signal speed, response time and signal offset of the emulated oxygen sensor.

Well, the most "collective farm" version of the catalyst emulator is screwing the spacer onto the rear oxygen sensor. Not every engine control unit can be "deceived" by this option, and "adjusting" the hole in the spacer can take more than one or even 5 times the removal and installation of this very spacer.

We can offer you options for transferring to EURO2 by "flashing" or installing an electronic emulator. We do NOT install spacers.

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Previous Track.

I suddenly encountered the fact that much more than I would like, people do not understand the cause of the P0420 error, and, as a result, do not understand the methods for eliminating it.
The P0420 error code reads - low catalyst efficiency. Simply put, the auto catalyst burned out and needs to be replaced or removed. Or it has already been removed, but the ECU does not know about it. The error usually occurs in quiet driving mode at speeds above 80 km / h.
The catalyst was originally designed to combat harmful emissions- after all, in the process of combustion fuel-air mixture not only water and carbon dioxide are formed, but also other substances. The catalyst is arranged simply - this is a bank built into exhaust system engine. Inside the can is a cellular structure through which the exhaust gases pass. A catalyst substance (often platinum) is deposited on the walls of this structure, which, roughly speaking, "burns out" fuel and other harmful substances. The structure is designed in such a way as to have the largest contact surface with the gases passing through it. If the quality of the fuel is low (and here, in the Crimea, unfortunately, very often), then the catalyst is destroyed much faster.
To determine the effectiveness of the catalyst in exhaust pipe after it is installed an additional lambda probe. The readings from the primary and secondary probes are compared.

Signal form for good and bad catalyst

On the picture blue color the signal of the front lambda probe is shown, and in orange - the rear, installed after the catalyst. At the top, the signals are shown with a working catalyst. In reality, the signal from the rear lambda probe is, of course, not direct, but it is greatly smoothed compared to the signal from the front probe. But with a faulty catalyst (below in the picture), the signal from the rear probe is very similar to the signal from the front. This is where the ECU lights up the "jekichan" light.
Worse, a burnt catalyst interferes with the normal removal of exhaust gases, which inevitably affects the power of the car.
Sometimes catalysts are removed just to increase power - mainly on turbocharged engines. In any case, instead of a catalyst, it is necessary to weld not a piece of pipe, but a flame arrester.
Okay, catalytic converter removed. Now we need to get rid of the error. Method two - to deceive the computer or disable the error programmatically.
There are two types of decoys - electronic and "analog". An electronic snag is a kind of "controller" consisting of a different number of parts - from a whole board with microcircuits to a twisting of a resistor with a capacitor. It all depends, it seems to me, on the impudence of the fixer. An "analog" snag is a kind of insert that is screwed into seat rear lambda probe and has a fairly small hole for exhaust gases.
In any case, these devices imitate the catalyst, smoothing the signal from the rear lambda probe. This approach almost always works for cars with Euro-3 standards, and not always for cars with Euro-4. The reason lies in the fact that for Euro-4 the ECU conducts a stricter control of the readings, and it is not always possible to select the parameters of tricks. Moreover, when using inserts on Euro-4 cars, errors P2096 and P2098 are almost guaranteed to occur. In addition, there is another nuance that arises even when software shutdown code P0420 on cars with Euro 4 (for example, Subaru Tribeca).
Yes, you can't just take and disable P0420 in Tribeca! The thing is that even when this error is disabled, the readings of the rear lambda probe continue to be taken into account during carburetion - in the logs this can be seen by the value of the AF #3 Correction/Learning parameter. And do not hesitate, she will correct you ... In this case, it is obligatory additional setting mixing parameters.
In short, fly airplanes ... No, not like that - get serviced by professionals.

Used to indicate a vehicle malfunction. control lamp on the instrument panel "CheckEngine". To find out the cause of its fire, computer diagnostics of the car is used, the result of which are error codes. Almost any car owner with experience has encountered errors P0420 - P0430, which usually indicate the need for repair, or rather, replacement of the catalyst.

Catalyst error codes

• P0420 - The efficiency of the catalyst system B1 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0421 - The heating efficiency of catalysts B1 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0422 - The efficiency of the main catalyst B1 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0423 - Catalyst B1 heater efficiency below acceptable threshold
• P0424 - The temperature of the catalyst heater B1 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0430 - The efficiency of the catalyst system B2 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0431 - The heating efficiency of catalysts B3 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0432 - The efficiency of the main catalyst B2 is below the acceptable threshold
• P0433 - Catalyst B2 heater efficiency below acceptable threshold
• P0434 - The temperature of the catalyst heater B2 is below the acceptable threshold

Any modern car equipped with a device that "afterburns" unburned fuel (CH) and carbon monoxide (CO) to water vapor and carbon dioxide. Usually this device is called a catalyst (its other names are a converter or a catalytic converter of gases). Due to it, the concentrations of CO and CH in exhaust gases complies with EURO 2, EURO 3 or EURO 4 standards. Such a transformation of harmful compounds into non-toxic ones is possible only in the presence of noble metal compounds, mainly rhodium (Rh), platinum (Pt) and ruthenium (Ru), as well as high temperatures. To do this, the catalysts are usually installed directly on the exhaust manifolds of the engine, and their working "body" is made in the form of a porous ceramic structure with a large specific surface, on which the compounds of the above metals are deposited in a thin layer.

Before and after the catalyst, oxygen sensors (lambda probes) are installed, which measure the decrease in the oxygen content after passing through the converter. The data received from them is fed into the car's electronics - OBD system II. If the difference in oxygen concentrations falls below a certain value that is programmed into the system, the car's engine will go into emergency operation, the "CheckEngine" warning lamp will light up, and the car's diagnostics will show error codes P0420 - P0430.

Is error P0420 - P0430 so terrible and is it possible to operate the car with it? A short time after its detection, changes in the behavior of the car are usually not observed. This is due to the fact that the designers design the system with some margin, that is, the catalyst is already inefficient, but this is not yet critical for the car. The car owner, as it were, is given time to eliminate this malfunction. IN further engine the car may simply refuse to work normally.

Lambda probe error: P0130 - P0167

A faulty lambda probe will also be indicated by the "CheckEngine" lamp. Lambda probe errors - P0130 - P0167. Oxygen sensor diagnostics are usually performed using the Ultrascan P1 or Launch x431 GX3 scanners, or using an oscilloscope. The procedure for replacing them is quick and inexpensive, unlike that for a car converter.

If the diagnostic results show that the cause of errors P0420 - P0430 is not enough effective work catalytic converter, it needs to be changed. However, prices for the original new part lie in the range from 500 to 2000 thousand euros. Naturally, for many, such repairs become very burdensome, so the following two options for solving this problem are often used now:

• installation of a universal catalyst,
• fire extinguisher installation.

Catalyst repair in the form of replacing it with a universal one is a quick "budget" way to restore a car. In fact, universal catalyst differs from the original part only in price and method of fastening (usually installed by welding).

Installation of a flame arrester consists in replacing the catalyst with a preliminary resonator. Naturally, electronic system the car cannot “not notice” the absence of a catalytic converter, therefore, an oxygen sensor snag is installed in the circuit between the car’s ECU and the second lambda probe. There are two types of lambda probe decoys - electronic, which are a microchip that emulates the operation of a catalyst, or mechanical. The latter are made of bronze and are an additional electrical resistance.