Greetings all! My family just became proud owners of one of the coolest vehicles out there. To say the least, we're really enjoying the Element's overall design.
We just purchased a 1 owner '03 Element from a lady who has serviced the vehicle at the dealer since day one. All of the dealer recommended maintenance and even oil changes have been done at the dealership she bought it from. We got a really good deal on it, so I could live with the fact that it was going to need a catalytic converter replacement. She just bought a brand new '10 Element instead of paying the $1259 job to replace the cat converter at the dealer.
About 95% of the miles on it are highway, coupled with the fact that it has always been serviced by Honda certified techs and with genuine Honda parts and fluids, the Element runs exceptionally well. We actually thought it died at the first stop light we came to because the smooth running engine is undetectable at idle.
I'd really like to see this Element hit the 300k mileage mark and feel that with the way it was driven and the religious maint. it's had over it's life, it has a high probability of meeting and hopefully exceeding this goal.
My question is regarding aftermarket high flow catalytic converters. Does anyone with a highly technical background know if the replacement of the OEM cat with an aftermarket high flow cat will have any detrimental effect on the reliability of the vehicle afterward? Could it cause other parts to prematurely wear (O2 sensors, pistons, etc.) and possibly fail due to the out of original Mfg. specifications air flow and/or engine pressures?
We're a young, but well established family with two small children that really need to have a reliable family vehicle and if I absolutely have to, I'll pay the crazy amount the dealer is asking for the cat converter job if there's any notion that there's a potentiality of a negative impact on the reliability of the Element by using an aftermarket out-of-mfg.-spec cat converter.
Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided on the matter!
JD
We just purchased a 1 owner '03 Element from a lady who has serviced the vehicle at the dealer since day one. All of the dealer recommended maintenance and even oil changes have been done at the dealership she bought it from. We got a really good deal on it, so I could live with the fact that it was going to need a catalytic converter replacement. She just bought a brand new '10 Element instead of paying the $1259 job to replace the cat converter at the dealer.
About 95% of the miles on it are highway, coupled with the fact that it has always been serviced by Honda certified techs and with genuine Honda parts and fluids, the Element runs exceptionally well. We actually thought it died at the first stop light we came to because the smooth running engine is undetectable at idle.
I'd really like to see this Element hit the 300k mileage mark and feel that with the way it was driven and the religious maint. it's had over it's life, it has a high probability of meeting and hopefully exceeding this goal.
My question is regarding aftermarket high flow catalytic converters. Does anyone with a highly technical background know if the replacement of the OEM cat with an aftermarket high flow cat will have any detrimental effect on the reliability of the vehicle afterward? Could it cause other parts to prematurely wear (O2 sensors, pistons, etc.) and possibly fail due to the out of original Mfg. specifications air flow and/or engine pressures?
We're a young, but well established family with two small children that really need to have a reliable family vehicle and if I absolutely have to, I'll pay the crazy amount the dealer is asking for the cat converter job if there's any notion that there's a potentiality of a negative impact on the reliability of the Element by using an aftermarket out-of-mfg.-spec cat converter.
Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided on the matter!
JD
