My son's '97 Civic DX has the Check Engine light on all the time. The scanner says it is a bad cat conv. With 221,750 miles on the car, I'm not surprised.

Can anyone give me any tips about replacing this? The converter is one with the exhaust manifold, so the whole thing has to be replaced. It looks like it's easy enough to get at, but everything has been on there for 16 years and many miles.

I'm just wondering if there is anything special I should know about.

 

I just helped my brother do this with his 98 about 6 months ago. The exhaust manifold was cracked as well as low catalyst codes being thrown. Removing old exhaust piece is not fun. I had to replace most all bolts and nuts either because they broke, or stripped and I had to use an extractor to remove them.

 

Well...I would just spray lube on every bolt/nut that you have to take off & let them soak for a couple hours. You shouldn't even have to disconnect the header from the pipe that goes to the cat. Just disconnect the header & the pipe & take it off in 1 piece..then move on to taking off the cat.
If you don't break any bolts off..Just soak them in a small bowl of oil so they'll go in easy & come out easy next time around.

I had to replace my oil pan gasket on my 92 Civic last week & had to remove the header & pipe just to get in there. I had no problems with my bolts or nuts...just as long as I sprayed them down with lube & let them suckers soak in oil.

 

For some reason, the cat comes with the manifold, as if they are one piece. I got mine yesterday, and it is two separate pieces. I don't know why they don't just sell the cat separately. I'm glad I got all new studs and nuts because after 14 yrs, they just might be a bit rusted.