A catalytic converter is an important component of modern cars, as it purifies your vehicle’s exhaust gases and thus suits modern pollution requirements. Nevertheless, it is possible that it may turned out to be clogged or breakdown, in which circumstance a change or cleaning is fundamental. In this article we are going to check out how to clean a catalytic converter on Toyota Sienna? To achieve this, first of all, we will show you the scenarios in which it may be interesting to clean the catalytic converter of your Toyota Sienna, then, how to conduct 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 Toyota Sienna?

In this first section we will teach you why it may be valuable to clean the catalyst of your Toyota Sienna . In actual fact for some of you it may seem logical but most of you do not know how it works and the consequences dirty catalytic converter .

Role and functioning of the catalytic converter of a Toyota Sienna

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The catalytic converter of your Toyota Sienna has the objective to get rid of harmful exhaust gases related to the procedure of your engine unit. In actual fact, it is one of the most important elements that fight against the pollution discharged by your Toyota Sienna. It will transform these harmful gases into water or non-polluting gases. In order to transform these gases, the catalyst of your Toyota Sienna 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 Toyota Sienna. If you are thinking of making enough long travels to heat it up frequently (count more than 10 kilometres for the catalyst to reach the right temperature), this will enable you to optimise the life of this element and keep ideal engine unit efficiency.

Outcomes of a dirty or defective catalytic converter on Toyota Sienna

We will now discover what can be the consequences of a dirty or failing catalytic converter on Toyota Sienna . This will enable you to identify the symptoms that should notify you to a malfunction of your catalytic converter, here is the list of signs of illness of a defective catalytic converter:

  • The catalytic converter of your Toyota Sienna is clogged: As we said above, if you make too short journeys like 50% of people, it will not have the time to start working and the catalytic converter will clog up with exhaust gases.
  • Switching on the engine light: : Following a clogged catalytic converter, engine light of your Toyota Sienna may come on, do not hesitate to seek advice from our content page to identify how to switch it off.
  • A defective lambda sensor : The catalyst works in close connection with the lambda sensors downstream and upstream of it, they will analyze the air flowing inside it, if it is clogged the sensors will generally also have complications.
  • A metallic noise coming from the exhaust: In case the catalyst is dead you should hear this noise which results in that the ceramic is damaged.

Why you should clean the catalytic converter of your Toyota Sienna

Before we finish with the step you are most likely most curious about, how to clean the catalytic converter of a Toyota Sienna? We will teach you why it may be important for you to execute this cleaning. In actual fact, a catalytic converter is a very expensive component (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 may 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 frequently will save you quite a lot of money.

How do you clean the catalytic converter from its Toyota Sienna?

Finally here is the step that you are almost certainly most enthusiastic about in this article, how to clean the catalytic converter of your Toyota Sienna? Know that this process is very very easy, and that there are two approaches to accomplish:

  • Scrubbing the catalytic converter from your Toyota Sienna on a regular basis: This approach is especially effective for people who specifically do short trips . To do this, nothing could be less complicated, from time to time, make a long trip (about 30 minutes to improve 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 car center for about 20 euros. All you have to do is add it to your fuel directly 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 frequently at high rpm . If you can before and afterwards do an exhaust gas analysis to examine that you have recovered healthier exhaust fumes after the procedure. You can execute this procedure every 15 000km.

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If you want more guides on the Toyota Sienna, go to our Toyota Sienna category.