1999 Mercury Villager CATIALITIC CONVERTER OVER HEATIED GLO

1999 MERCURY VILLAGER
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RONLAG
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Engine Performance problem
1999 Mercury Villager 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic 136k miles

MY MECHANIC HAS GIVEN UP TRYING TO FIX PROBLEM
SHORTLY AFTER FILLING CAR UP AT SHELL (NITROGYN) ENRICHED GAS ON AN EMPTY TANK THE CAR BEGAN TO BOG DOWN EVIN BACK FIRE AFTER
RUNNING FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.
MECHANIC TEST DROVE SEVERAL TIMES SO WE PICKED UP AND IT BEGAN TO BOG DOWN AND BACKFIRE. DROVE IT 1/4 MILE IN THAT CONDITION AND SMOKE STARTED ENTERING CABIN. LOOKED UNDERNEATH AND THE CATALITIC CONVERTER WAS GLOWING RED. REPORTED THIS TO MECHANIC AND HE WAS ABLE TO DUPLICATE THIS CONDITION AGAIN WHILE RUNNING COMPUTER TEST BUT COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING WRONG EXCEPT THE CATALITIC CONVERTER WAS CLOGGED FROM BEING FUSED BY THE HEAT.
HE REPLACED GAS AND STILL THE SAME.
Jun 27, 2009 at 4:11 PM
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KHLOW2008
  • AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR CONTRIBUTOR
  • 41,814 POSTS
Hi ronlag,

Thank you for the donation.

For the cat converter to glow red hot, at least one of the cylinders must be missing badly resulting in excessive fuel getting to it. Thsi explains the misfiring.

What you need to do is to diagnose why the firing is happening. Bad spark plugs or related parts, bad injectors allowing excessive gas into cylinders, compression problem etc.
Jun 28, 2009 at 5:13 AM