Hi all, first time here, I know very little about cars other than how to fill them up, and drive (and to check error codes).
Background on my car, it's a Subaru Outback 6Cyl, 2006, 577000km (~358000miles), had an engine replacement at about ~350000km, and head gasket replacement at about 500000km, since about 2019 it's been making an odd metalic rattling noise when I hit about 2000rpm under load (so accelerating, driving, and reversing, but not stationary), every mechanic has basically shrugged and said "no idea, probably wear and tear" on the noise.
Anyway, here's my issue:
About 1 week ago I had the engine light come on, just turned on, no rough driving, just came on, I got home and checked the error code (using the trick with the headlights and trip button) and it spat out P0420, and a quick google said basically "don't drive, it's the catalytic converter", so I booked into my subaru mechanic for them to look at as they might be expensive but they do a good job (and offer rental cars), they said they don't do catalytic converters but given the age of the car that's probably what it is, and they recomended someone in the area that specialises in that.
So I contacted them and booked it in to have it looked at, they quoted $1,700(AUD) to do the job, but they also said it could be the O2 sensors as they had some weird readings on it, so a few days go by and the day (Friday) comes for me to take my car in, they replace both cat converters and say "we decided not to replace the O2 sensors at this time as the readings seem normal now, but they may still need replacing". So I pay the guy and off I went, and that rattle noise disappeared all together.
I drive around all weekend, and come Monday (today), I've probably done about 200km and on my way to work the engine light comes on again... so when I get to work I check the code and yep P0420 shows up, my question is (and I understand it can depend on many factors...):
- is this bad work from the mecahnic (they have about 4.5 stars on google and a tonne of positive reviews which I know doesn't mean much these days)
- actually needing the O2 sensors replaced
- something worse
Thanks in advance
Background on my car, it's a Subaru Outback 6Cyl, 2006, 577000km (~358000miles), had an engine replacement at about ~350000km, and head gasket replacement at about 500000km, since about 2019 it's been making an odd metalic rattling noise when I hit about 2000rpm under load (so accelerating, driving, and reversing, but not stationary), every mechanic has basically shrugged and said "no idea, probably wear and tear" on the noise.
Anyway, here's my issue:
About 1 week ago I had the engine light come on, just turned on, no rough driving, just came on, I got home and checked the error code (using the trick with the headlights and trip button) and it spat out P0420, and a quick google said basically "don't drive, it's the catalytic converter", so I booked into my subaru mechanic for them to look at as they might be expensive but they do a good job (and offer rental cars), they said they don't do catalytic converters but given the age of the car that's probably what it is, and they recomended someone in the area that specialises in that.
So I contacted them and booked it in to have it looked at, they quoted $1,700(AUD) to do the job, but they also said it could be the O2 sensors as they had some weird readings on it, so a few days go by and the day (Friday) comes for me to take my car in, they replace both cat converters and say "we decided not to replace the O2 sensors at this time as the readings seem normal now, but they may still need replacing". So I pay the guy and off I went, and that rattle noise disappeared all together.
I drive around all weekend, and come Monday (today), I've probably done about 200km and on my way to work the engine light comes on again... so when I get to work I check the code and yep P0420 shows up, my question is (and I understand it can depend on many factors...):
- is this bad work from the mecahnic (they have about 4.5 stars on google and a tonne of positive reviews which I know doesn't mean much these days)
- actually needing the O2 sensors replaced
- something worse
Thanks in advance
