Vehicle: 1997 Grand Caravan, 3.3l, 160k miles.
This morning I did something I hardly ever do: I let the tank get down to almost empty and then had to fuel up at a dumpy gas station. Anyway, later today I got a "Service Engine Soon" light. So I get the code(s), P0420 & MIL12, and find out that the P0420 is the generic "catalyst efficiency below required level." Naturally, panic set in: New cat, new upstream/downstream sensors, etc. But I drove the vehicle for the rest of the day and there are no obvious problems (no rough idle, no hesitation, no loss of power)...it runs same as ever.
That said, could filling an almost empty tank with bad gas cause the PCM to throw this code? If so, and it'll take me 2 weeks to burn through this tank of gas, which additive should I use to mitigate the problem? Techron, MMO, Lucas, etc?
Thanks for any help!
This morning I did something I hardly ever do: I let the tank get down to almost empty and then had to fuel up at a dumpy gas station. Anyway, later today I got a "Service Engine Soon" light. So I get the code(s), P0420 & MIL12, and find out that the P0420 is the generic "catalyst efficiency below required level." Naturally, panic set in: New cat, new upstream/downstream sensors, etc. But I drove the vehicle for the rest of the day and there are no obvious problems (no rough idle, no hesitation, no loss of power)...it runs same as ever.
That said, could filling an almost empty tank with bad gas cause the PCM to throw this code? If so, and it'll take me 2 weeks to burn through this tank of gas, which additive should I use to mitigate the problem? Techron, MMO, Lucas, etc?
Thanks for any help!