i have a 97 318ti with over 160k miles. Check engine came on during the summer. went to dealer who said the error codes were for my converter. went to midas same result but a less expensive quote. over the last few months Midas has had to replace the converter 3 times and according to them has used three different after market converters as the check engine light keeps coming on. today the light came on for the fourth time. Assuming its the converter again does anyone have any experience with this and a possible solution?
Find someone who is parting out a ti and stay away from aftermarket. It's not uncommon for after market cats to fail.
what surprises me that in i think 4 months we have been through 3 converters from 3 different manufactureres...should i just bite the bullet and get a OEM one? there was also a thread on the bimmerworld site that perhaps failure is due to some other issue...back pressure, gas, plugs etc... just curious if others have ever had this issue.
Doesn't surprise me one bit. I believe one person had success with a cat from Magnaflow. Or take a look through http://www.318ti.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13 and look for people parting out cars if you are willing to do the work yourself. I also need a cat which I've been putting off because the CEL goes on only once in a while.
I have a converter from a 97 318ti (I dropped in a 6 cylinder, so I don't need it.) Let me know if you want it. Steve- A friend of mine in MD can get you a decent pair of cats if you want to go aftermarket.
I know you need a 2.8 cat, steve, I've seen your car. Tho OE 318i cat offer was for the OP of this thread. buy if you, Steve, are interested in a custom aftermarket setup I know a guy that can set you up with some nice free flow cats and his work with stainless is fantastic (he does a lot of turbo systems and tig welds everything.)
