Engine Problems

alright, im usually on here for hondas, but my buddy's girls car is really messed up right now so i thought id try this out. she has a 2000 toyota camry with just over 100k on it, automatic, 4 banger. they recently made a trip from mass down to georgia and back with no problems. before they left, we replaced the o2 sensor with a universal one. when they got back, after a few days, the car died. no charge in the battery so we got another one (an optima yellow stored in his room), along with a new alternator. this got the car running. but taking it for a drive, it started almost like bogging out, like the fuel or air was getting cut off. then it just died. when we popped the hood, the exhaust, right below the 02 sensor, was beet red and burning up. we towed the car back to his house, jumped the car (battery dead again) and got it running. not even 5 minutes go by and the exhuast is bright red again. we thought it was maybe the cat totally clogged up, but when its running, plenty of exhuast comes out the tailpipe. if anyone has any ideas at all as to what we can do, please let me know so we have some more options other than replacing the motor. thanks.

Good lord! You've got your hands full. I'm not a garage mechanic but, I would dump the codes with a scanner first and see where it leads. Autozone does it free. Beyond that, I'm wondering if the O2 sensor you put in isn't so universal. Maybe it's giving just enough wrong info to lean the mixture creating too much heat but not enough to turn on the Check Engine light. Recharge the "new" battery and do a load test on it. You'll probably need a "real new" battery. I'm sure others will chime in with info. This is not your average problem. Keep us in the loop.

well, weve taken it to a couple of local mechanics but both were baffled as to what we should do. good service, huh? well havent done too much other than have a few certified guys look at it but they too were no help. im totally lost...the only thing that both mechanics could come to was a clogged catalitic converter. so either tonight or tomorrow night i think we will switch out the cat for a brand-new one. new battery on its way (optima yellow under warranty), and hopefully we can get a guy from AZ to come up with a diagnostic tool (my buddys girl wont let him drive the car cuz she thinks it gonna blow...haha) and maybe pull a code from the beast.

ok its been a while since i been in here but my buddy got the car looked at by his girls pops and his friend fixed it up. i guess it was a clogged-up and there was also something wrong with his o2 sensor, so that got changed along with a new battery being outin. all is well now, at least as far as i know so thanks to RIP for tryin to assist me with this.

Hey, thanks for posting the fix. Glad to hear you're running ok now. Life is grand!

Sounds like you had multiple issues. Universal 02 sensor? There's no such thing no matter what the box says.
Also i would check out your alternator too. Put a volt ohmmeter (a.k.a. multimeter) and set it for "12v/DC" and put the probes on your battery when engine at idle. It should read 14.0 volts or maybe a little more. If it reads less, like 13.8 or less then change the alternator. Because batterys dont die for no reason one after another.