What are symptoms of catalytic converter going bad on a 2001 Lincoln Town Car?

Answer 1

While my LTC town car's catalytic converter is fine, I have experienced cat failures on another vehicle. In that case (a single exhaust car) I had massive loss of power, and backpressure into the engine so bad it would blow off some of the emission related hoses on the engine. A professional shop misdiagnosed the condition and said I needed a new engine...only a half block down the road after putting in a new engine I had the same loss of power!

In my case, the core of the catalytic converter had come loose, and was actually jamming against the exit pipe and blocking the exhaust. It would move around so sometimes would block the exhaust, and sometimes be fine.

One 'test' you can do is to rap on the catalytic converter with a wrench or piece of wood. If your core has come loose you will hear it rattling around. Hope that helps. Paul