Sudden death of left side catalytic converter

[OK Falls GTS]

My GTS has around 75K kms. Never had an issue with the cats, car ran fine before this mishap. Just pulled out of my garage, idling no more than 3-4 minutes when suddenly, smoke appeared to the left side,looking out from inside. Shut the engine off and jumped out to access the situation. The side sill started burning where the converter is located. Luckily, the gardenhose was only steps away so, started dousing the entire sill. Paint was totally gone and peeling away. After a few minutes, I could still feel the sill too hot to touch so, I gave it a bit more water. I decided, screw cats and removed them both sides. Got some tubing, less than 40 bucks and the car was back on the street/track. Sounds a lot better, no service engine light, and no matter how hard I'm driving the sills are only warm to touch. I think, should have gotten a fire extinguisher long time ago, because it could have happened anywhere. I live in a no aircare zone area, car has collector exempt status so, no cats for me.
Looking through the cats, they seem to be clogged quite bad. Some people say they can be cleaned out but I won't bother. Don't want to bother with another fiasco. Anyone else had this happened to them at such low milage, under 50k miles?

[Geronimo]

Mine were almost completely clogged at 27,000 miles. No surprise.

[OK Falls GTS]

That's interesting getting clogged at such low miles. Our computers must be calibrated quite rich. My car never failed aircare before getting my collector status. Good thing I don't have to get tested anymore because now I can smell the car running a bit rich. Performance feels about the same, maybe a little quicker to get to WOT now.

[Camfab]

No its not common. I’m guessing you’ve been running excessively rich and literally melted your Cats because of it.

[OK Falls GTS]

I'm going to check the A/F ratio since i'm sure it's running rich. Never had an issue with fuel economy though. Easily run the 250 miles from Vancouver to Penticton without stopping at any gas station through 6-9 % uphill grades. The substrate inside the cats look perfect other than I can't see through it. Nothing loose inside by shaking it. I had cat failure in my Grand Cherokee that developed rattle, loosing power in about a 100K.

[Geronimo]

No its not common. I’m guessing you’ve been running excessively rich and literally melted your Cats because of it.

Define common. Speed Density systems run a little rich and antiquated cats don't help.

[Venomess]

My sills would get so hot that even a brief less then a second touch burned both my girlfriend's ankles and her girlfriend's one day. Now I went catless with no resonators and Borla Stinger mufflers I can put my hand on them and leave it. Incredible heat difference. You, like me, were probably running very rich from factory.

[Bill Pemberton]

Nothing unusual at all , especially considering you are talking about a 18-19 year old car. There are so many issues that could have caused this to occur and frankly age is one of the simplest . I would just replace both sides and continue to enjoy your Viper.

Good luck.

[Bill Pemberton]

Sorry , but not uncommon for a lot of older cars to have them go bad ( bad fuel , running rich, and age ). This is not a Viper issue it happens with a lot of cars ............

I would replace with a set of High Flow cats though, not factory.

[BrianACR]

Good thing your car doesn't require testing
I pulled mine out too and it made a huge difference in heat.

[OK Falls GTS]

Good thing your car doesn't require testing
I pulled mine out too and it made a huge difference in heat.

Since most cars on the road are OBD II or newer, British columbia pulled the plug on aircare testing. It was a money grab anyway. I'd have preferred the old system back in the 70's when new and old cars were tested for mechanical safety. I remember failing the test for bad headlight aim with my brand new two weeks old 72 Challenger,lol.

[BrianACR]

Haha that's sad. It is all just a money grab.
So glad we don't have emissions testing here in Alberta!

[OK Falls GTS]

Just did a quick check with my scanner on the Viper in the garage. LTFT shows negative values [ rich condition ] so I need some investigating the injectors, plugs, MAP sensor etc..... when I have more time. Local tuner SRS has a dyno, I'll take the car in for a tune in the spring.

[MH60M]

Mine went bad on the previous owner under 30k miles. He never changed them.......rotted the frame and melted/burnt both the sills/covers/interior trim/carpet. I replaced them with spiral-flow mufflers, no issues so far....although a little stinky while idling in the garage.

[uvbnbit]

replace O2's, reset PCM.