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Author Topic: How can you tell if your cat has died?  (Read 2984 times)

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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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How can you tell if your cat has died?
« on: 30 September 2012, 15:58:03 »

........and if you answer "shove a stick up it's arse and see if it runs off".......then you're getting your household moggy confused with your catalytic converter. ;)

I've been looking into this because if the RX-8 fails it's emissions test for a second time there is a possibility that the cat may be deceased.

1.When cold see if it rattles when struck with something solid.
2.Use an infrared laser pyrometer. This sounds expensive but costs about fifty notes on Ebay. Apparently it can check the inlet and outlet temperature of the cat. I believe it should be significantly hotter at the outlet if the cat is working properly.

Any other ways of checking to see if your cat is f**ked?, chaps. :y
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martin42

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #1 on: 30 September 2012, 16:01:46 »

try replacing it with a 2nd hand unit, maybe some of rx8 forums can help you out more  :y
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05omegav6

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #2 on: 30 September 2012, 16:15:30 »

try replacing it with a 2nd hand unit, maybe some of rx8 forums can help you out more  :y
If it's a common thing, good second hand spares will be hard to come by :-\

The death rattle will tell you that either the heat sheild is loose or that the internals are breaking up :-\

As a recent purchase, take it back to the vendor and suggest, politely, that under the Sale of Goods Act, it is rheir responsibility to sort and fix it :y

Unless you purchased privately, of course,
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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #3 on: 30 September 2012, 16:19:43 »

try replacing it with a 2nd hand unit, maybe some of rx8 forums can help you out more  :y
If it's a common thing, good second hand spares will be hard to come by :-\

The death rattle will tell you that either the heat sheild is loose or that the internals are breaking up :-\

As a recent purchase, take it back to the vendor and suggest, politely, that under the Sale of Goods Act, it is rheir responsibility to sort and fix it :y

Unless you purchased privately, of course,


I did, Taxi Al. I don't know anything for certain yet........but I'm hoping it's not the cat. :-\
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Olympia5776

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #4 on: 30 September 2012, 16:31:21 »

........and if you answer "shove a stick up it's arse and see if it runs off".......then you're getting your household moggy confused with your catalytic converter. ;)

I've been looking into this because if the RX-8 fails it's emissions test for a second time there is a possibility that the cat may be deceased.

1.When cold see if it rattles when struck with something solid.
2.Use an infrared laser pyrometer. This sounds expensive but costs about fifty notes on Ebay. Apparently it can check the inlet and outlet temperature of the cat. I believe it should be significantly hotter at the outlet if the cat is working properly.

Any other ways of checking to see if your cat is f**ked?, chaps. :y

If you decide to go down that route a couple of pointers .
The low cost handhelds on the market will have a fairly large target area .Read the instructions carefully to see what the "minimum target area" is in relation to distance from target . IR measurement is an average measurement of the area measured ( field of view ) so if the MTA is greater than the dia of the exhaust then you will be measuring the area behind which being cooler will greatly affect the accuracy.
Emissivity ,All IR measurement require this factored adjustment although many of the cheaper ones on the market ignore it.This is the compensation factor for the internal reflectivity of the target material ,ie the amount of IR that is reflected inwards away from the detector. To obtain any accuracy this adjustment has to be exact. The manufacturers will supply some figures but not for every surface in the world. Easiest way to overcome this is to paint the exhaust black at the point of measurement and then set the E value to 1 .
Pity you are so far away as I have several ,one of which will measure down to 9mm target , but that was a £3K instrument .
Good luck . :y
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05omegav6

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #5 on: 30 September 2012, 16:35:24 »

Hey ho :-\ fingers crossed :y Although I take it that it didn't run away when you got your stick out then...
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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #6 on: 30 September 2012, 16:59:48 »

........and if you answer "shove a stick up it's arse and see if it runs off".......then you're getting your household moggy confused with your catalytic converter. ;)

I've been looking into this because if the RX-8 fails it's emissions test for a second time there is a possibility that the cat may be deceased.

1.When cold see if it rattles when struck with something solid.
2.Use an infrared laser pyrometer. This sounds expensive but costs about fifty notes on Ebay. Apparently it can check the inlet and outlet temperature of the cat. I believe it should be significantly hotter at the outlet if the cat is working properly.

Any other ways of checking to see if your cat is f**ked?, chaps. :y

If you decide to go down that route a couple of pointers .
The low cost handhelds on the market will have a fairly large target area .Read the instructions carefully to see what the "minimum target area" is in relation to distance from target . IR measurement is an average measurement of the area measured ( field of view ) so if the MTA is greater than the dia of the exhaust then you will be measuring the area behind which being cooler will greatly affect the accuracy.
Emissivity ,All IR measurement require this factored adjustment although many of the cheaper ones on the market ignore it.This is the compensation factor for the internal reflectivity of the target material ,ie the amount of IR that is reflected inwards away from the detector. To obtain any accuracy this adjustment has to be exact. The manufacturers will supply some figures but not for every surface in the world. Easiest way to overcome this is to paint the exhaust black at the point of measurement and then set the E value to 1 .
Pity you are so far away as I have several ,one of which will measure down to 9mm target , but that was a £3K instrument .
Good luck . :y


Thanks, Olympia. :y. I'll read the instructions very closely as you suggest. :y
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Lazydocker

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #7 on: 30 September 2012, 19:39:55 »

Opti, unless it's got a hole it's not the cat ;) The only fail was lambda, so it's not the cat (unless it's drawing air in) ;)
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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #8 on: 30 September 2012, 19:51:05 »

Opti, unless it's got a hole it's not the cat ;) The only fail was lambda, so it's not the cat (unless it's drawing air in) ;)


You might have just saved me £1300 ( that's what Mazda charge for a genuine cat). Thanks LD. :y
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Lazydocker

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #9 on: 30 September 2012, 20:12:31 »

Opti, unless it's got a hole it's not the cat ;) The only fail was lambda, so it's not the cat (unless it's drawing air in) ;)


You might have just saved me £1300 ( that's what Mazda charge for a genuine cat). Thanks LD. :y

The cat is doing it's job ;)
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henryd

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #10 on: 30 September 2012, 21:12:29 »

Opti, unless it's got a hole it's not the cat ;) The only fail was lambda, so it's not the cat (unless it's drawing air in) ;)


You might have just saved me £1300 ( that's what Mazda charge for a genuine cat). Thanks LD. :y

The cat is doing it's job ;)

I agree,I still reckon you have a very tiny exhaust leak which is messing with your Lambda reading :y
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Kevin Wood

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #11 on: 30 September 2012, 23:37:14 »

Yep, categorically, it's NOT the cat.

It only failed on the Lambda reading, which is an estimate of what the fuel mixture was upstream of the cat. The cat is there to remove oxides of nitrogen, carbon and hydrocarbons. Its effectiveness in this respect is measured by the CO and HC levels in the exhaust gas, both of which were within limits on the report you posted. :y
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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #12 on: 30 September 2012, 23:45:04 »

Usually the heart has stopped ::)
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Field Marshal Dr. Opti

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #13 on: 01 October 2012, 15:17:03 »

Yep, categorically, it's NOT the cat.

It only failed on the Lambda reading, which is an estimate of what the fuel mixture was upstream of the cat. The cat is there to remove oxides of nitrogen, carbon and hydrocarbons. Its effectiveness in this respect is measured by the CO and HC levels in the exhaust gas, both of which were within limits on the report you posted. :y

Thanks, Kevin. You seem to know what you're talking about so I'm going with you on this one. I've booked it in for  another MOT on Friday. I've asked them to check for exhaust leaks while they have it up on the ramps, as this could be the reason for the  slightly high (1.12) lambda reading. Could the Lambda sensor  be faulty?

The reason I've been banging on about cats is because the RX8 forum say  the main reason for emissions failure on these cars is faulty ignition coils  causing the cat to fail. Does that make any sense?

As you rightly say both CO and HC levels were well within guidelines.  Just a fail on the Lambda.
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Kevin Wood

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Re: How can you tell if your cat has died?
« Reply #14 on: 01 October 2012, 15:29:20 »

I would expect with an ignition coil problem you'd get a misfire. If that were not corrected soon (and if it was only the leading / trailing plug it might not be that noticeable) you would get hydrocarbons passing into the cat in large quantities which would kill the cat, so that story is plausible, but I would expect the HC level to have been the problem at the MOT not the Lambda.

The Lambda value just indicates that, based on what the test machine is seeing coming out of the exhaust, the engine is running a little lean. This is just an estimate based on the exhaust gases after the cat, though, so could easily be upset by air leaking in. Alternatively, it may be that the engine is really running lean, which might well be down to a failing lambda sensor, air leak or some other metering issue. Live data would be required to dig much further than that, TBH.
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