Rockin S2K

9 months after buying my car, the dealership tech who is a cool guy told me that when my 2006 Honda S2000 came in as a
trade-in it had a eBay test pipe installed. The dealership removed it and installed a low cost Napa catalytic converter even
after the tech suggested a OEM one. The dealership declined due to the cost.

My car has been driving like shit since I purchased which I referred to in another post, but I wanted to ask separately what
are the communities thoughts on a NAPA catalytic converter and if it can be a concern.

rrounds

Is it an Exact Fit or Universal Fit cat? If it's a Exact Fit bolt in cat I doubt it would kill your power. But a Universal fit cat not made for the S could kill power up high in the rpm's.

ROD

zeroptzero

if the internal bricks are broken or have come loose they can affect performance, not uncommon with cat converters, and worth having a look at it if you can. The OEM cat is very expensive, perhaps for a reason, you should try a berk HFC , it would be much better than that NAPA cat performance wise.

Car Analogy

Buy a low mile used oem cat. See if it makes a difference. Sell it on if it makes no change. Low risk means to verify.
.

lookstoomuch

Haven't seen your other post or I have and can't correlate the username....anyway what characteristics define driving like shit? It's been driving like this since day 1 or has been getting gradually worse?

No doubt the OEM unit is better than whatever NAPA unit but I run a berk HFC which is likely similar in quality to the napa cat and my car runs fine with both a stock and Gernby tune. There you go, my $.02.

Car Analogy

Sounds like you didn't read his post, so your .02$ aren't even worth that. He bought the car with this napa cat installed, so he has no before performance to compare to the after.

So he needs to try a different cat to rule out the cat. To find out the before performance. This is the scenario test pipes were created for. But if instead he tests with a used cat for about the same $, he now has a usable cat if he needs it, or can in good conscience sell it on if not.

Chuck S

There's no way to measure exhaust restriction without laboratory equipment I'm aware of. Seems to me the only satisfactory cure to this problem (if it actually is the problem) is to fit something like a Berk high flow cat which is well documented to flow better than the OEM cat. Dyno test the car with the NAPA converter; retest with the Berk. Of course dyno time ain't free.

Years ago I had a VW with a bad cat where the honeycomb collapsed and blocked the exhaust flow to the point the engine would not run.

Discussing the performance problem in two different threads has us chasing our tails...

-- Chuck

jyeung528

i'm familiar with his other post. his issue isn't performance, it is a hesitation issue. to which billman250 suggested it was the tb.