A catalytic converter is an important part of contemporary cars, as it purifies your vehicle’s exhaust fumes and thus fulfills modern pollution specifications. Nevertheless, it is possible that it may turned out to be clogged or malfunction, in which circumstance a replace or cleaning is fundamental. Today we are going to look at how to clean a catalytic converter on Nissan Altima? To do this, to begin with, we will show you the circumstances in which it might be interesting to clean the catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima, then, how to accomplish this cleaning to retrieve the effectiveness of the catalytic converter of your car.

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Why would you want to clean up the catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima?

In this first part we will show you why it might be important to clean the catalyst of your Nissan Altima . Indeed for some of you it may seem logical but the majority of you do not understand how it functions and the outcomes dirty catalytic converter .

Purpose and functioning of the catalytic converter of a Nissan Altima

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The catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima has the task to get rid of harmful exhaust fumes related to the procedure of your engine unit. Indeed, it is one of the main elements that fight against the pollution discharged by your Nissan Altima. It will convert these harmful gases into water or non-polluting fumes. In order to convert these gases, the catalyst of your Nissan Altima a mesh of precious metals which, when the gases pass at high temperature, will break them down by chemical reaction . A catalytic converter can only work from 400°, it is therefore essential to avoid clogging the catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima. If you are considering making adequately long journeys to heat it up repeatedly (count more than 10 kilometres for the catalyst to reach the right temperature), this will enable you to optimise the life of this component and keep ideal engine unit effectiveness.

Consequences of a dirty or defective catalytic converter on Nissan Altima

We will now see what can be the outcomes of a dirty or failing catalytic converter on Nissan Altima . This will enable you to establish the manifestations that should alarm you to a failure of your catalytic converter, here is the list of symptoms of a defective catalytic converter:

  • The catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima is blocked: As we said above, if you make too short journeys like 50% of people, it will not have the time to start functioning and the catalytic converter will clog up with exhaust fumes.
  • Switching on the engine light: : Following a clogged catalytic converter, engine light of your Nissan Altima may come on, do not hesitate to consult our content to find out how to switch it off.
  • A defective lambda sensor : The catalyst functions in close connection with the lambda sensors downstream and upstream of it, they will review the air flowing inside it, if it is clogged the sensors will quite often also have problems.
  • A metallic noise originating from the exhaust: In case the catalyst is dead you should hear this noise which suggests that that the ceramic is damaged.

Why you should clean the catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima

Before we accomplish with the step you are probably most interested in, how to clean the catalytic converter of a Nissan Altima? We will show you why it might be important for you to perform this cleaning. Indeed, a catalytic converter is a very expensive part (about 500 euros with the set up, the price can vary according to the engines). Furthermore to being no longer good for passing the technical control , you might be at risk of over-consumption of fuel . Finally, the last interest is that cleaning a catalytic converter is not that expensive and doing it repeatedly will save you quite a lot of money.

How do you clean the catalytic converter from its Nissan Altima?

Finally here is the step that you are almost certainly most keen on in this guideline, how to clean the catalytic converter of your Nissan Altima? Know that this procedure is very simple, and that there are two approaches to accomplish:

  • Scrubbing the catalytic converter from your Nissan Altima on a regular basis: This approach is especially useful for persons who principally do short trips . To do this, nothing could be less difficult, from time to time, make a long trip (about 30 minutes to enhance the efficiency of the process), thinking of making your engine go up in revs so that the temperature in the catalyst increases and it can be cleaned.
  • To use a catalyst cleaner: You can discover some in a motor vehicle center for about 20 euros. All you have to do is add it to your fuel straight in your tank with about half a full tank. Afterwards you will have to drive on a long distance for at least 1 hour at mid-range by trying to go repeatedly at high rpm . If you can before and later on do an exhaust gas analysis to verify that you have recovered healthier exhaust fumes after the procedure. You can perform this procedure every 15 000km.

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If you want more tutorials on the Nissan Altima, go to our Nissan Altima category.