Honda cat converter and fuel additives

[BrianWC]

So my CR-V threw a CEL for "cat inefficiency" or whatever....I guess something at the 02 sensor. I suspect this may have been a result of a combustion chamber cleaning I did a while back. At least, that's all I can think of. No crazy oils in the Honda, typically 30 weights since I've been using closeout dino in it. Consumption has been about a quart over 3-5k miles. Maybe it's just from the consumption....

But anyway, I read and cleared the CEL (thank you scanguage) and haven't had it return. I did throw in about 12 ounces of my homebrew FI cleaner in the tank. It's roughly the same as Chemtool. Anyone think of anything else to keep this from happening again from a fuel system additive standpoint?

 

[SatinSilver]

Responding to the consumption...Have you changed out the pcv valve lately? You can get an oem one from http://www.collegehillshonda.com for a decent price.

Other ideas: Try some Maxlife or even just top off with it. Another step up would be Auto-rx.

 

[BrianWC]

It's done that since new. Not really worried. Yeah, I've never run the full arx treat in this car (saved that for the 9-5) but have added a maint dose suppliment to probably even OCI for the last two years. I will look at the PCV, though. Lord knows I have PCV on the brain from my saab. I don't have any regular Maxlife in my stash, just the synth. I am saving that for my 9-5 at a later date. I've alternated between Supertech dino and pre-platinum Pennzoil synth.

But back to the main concern, I'm wondering if there's anything that need be done to the cat/o2 sensor in the FI additive vein....

 

[benjamming]

Which code specifically? Sometimes things fail, etc.

 

[BrianWC]

Oh, I'll have to look it up again. It was something to do with cat inefficiency.

 

[chevrofreak]

The cats in my car are likely nearing the end of their life (126k+ miles) and all the oil my car was burning there for a while didn't help the situation.

I've noticed that if I switch grades of fuel (from 85 to 91, or the other way around) and I drive like a grandpa I get the CEL for cat inefficiency. If I drive it really hard once in a while to make sure the cats get nice and hot to burn off anything that may have accumulated, I don't have the issue.

 

[BrianWC]

Well, my wife drives that car pretty hard but the thing is it's all in-town driving. Granted that does involve a couple of daily 12 mile freeway runs at 75-80 mph, but nothing sustained. We did take an hour drive out of town last weekend with my FI cleaner in. Hopefully that helped.

 

[benjamming]

Do you have a fair amount of sulphur in the fuel down in LA? We have quite a bit around here in north AL.

 

[ChiTDI]

I was going to ask about the fuel source and possible tank of suspect gas.