1998 Contour - big probs

The car is designed so that it won't work properly without properly functioning catalytic converters. The emissions system will be messed up, which will be bad for the environment and your gas mileage.

I think this car needs to be fixed by someone who knows what he is doing. It's not going to be cheap. You're going to need a new oil pan, catalytic converters and apparently a new hose.

Jeff

If you live in California or New York (or one of the urban areas that requires a biennial smog check) better get the cats replaced, and whatever else needs fixing, the right way.

Because if you ream the catalytics out and put them back, the car will run better but the computer will see it through the downstream oxygen sensors (loss of catalyst function) and trip the Check Engine Light. With a set code and lit CEL you aren't going to pass smog, so no tags the next time they come up for renewal.

For the cat to die on a 9 year old car, you either drove the wheels off, or got unlucky.

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Addendum - it'll run from the simple action of removing the exhaust restriction, but not that much better overall. It will most likely go into open-loop mode where the computer has to guess at the right fuel mixture, and the performance and fuel mileage will suffer. -->--

Which engine? What happened to the oil pan?