98 Contour SVT Catalytic Converter??

Hey everybody. I'm new here and I have some problems with my 98 Contour SVT. I failed the Massachusetts Emissions test and the place i went to said i had a bad catalytic converter. I brought my car to Meineke and they said that i had two catalytic converters and that they did not have the parts and that i would have to go directly out of ford. Any info on where i can get the parts i need?? If it would be worth paying a little more for performance parts instead of replacement parts I would be interested in that.

Another issue is with my steering. When i press the brake my front end shakes and so does the steering wheel. And when i accelerate fast it pulls to the right.

If anybody has any info on either of these issues it would be greatly appreciated...This is the first car I have owned and right now it isnt the best experience.

The vibration you feel when you apply the brakes is from a warped rotor. Having your rotors turned and replacing your brake pads should fix that.

I just replaced my cat on my 98 svt. You only have one cat. Goto www.batinc.net and buy their high flow y-pipe and cat. It is much lighter than stock and flows better. It will take about 30 minutes to swap out. Batinc is a great site with excellent service. You should get you parts real quick.

Actually, you have 3 cat's. One main cat and a precat on each bank. If your still under the 8 year/80,000 mile warranty, Ford will replace it free of charge.

As svtcraver said, your rotors are warped. You can flip the rotors from the passenger side to the drivers side which and vise versa which should help the problem some. I would contact Stazi over on contour.org about upgrading rotors and pads. Heres the link to the thread. clicky (http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=brakes&Number=363852&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=all) The pulling you are feeling when you accelerate is torque steer. Thats normal with a front wheel drive car. Trust me, it only gets worse the higher your hp gets. :grinyes: But you could always upgrade from the stock diff with a quaife or torsen lsd, motor mount inserts, etc.

the reason your car pulls to the right when you take off fast is somthing they call torque steer. due to the car having the amount of torque it has it tends to pull in fast take off's.

My car is from arizona and i could not pass emissions either so replacing my cat or error 420? or something like that where the cat is not running at optimal was the issue. I actually took it to a pretty good mechanic which ran the car at like 3000rpm for about 10 min and i think he said he ran a current through something to burn the crud off the sensor which was activating the check engine light. He actually wanted me to get rid of my after market intake because the oils from it is actually that cruded up the sensor.

My car is from arizona and i could not pass emissions either so replacing my cat or error 420? or something like that where the cat is not running at optimal was the issue. I actually took it to a pretty good mechanic which ran the car at like 3000rpm for about 10 min and i think he said he ran a current through something to burn the crud off the sensor which was activating the check engine light. He actually wanted me to get rid of my after market intake because the oils from it is actually that cruded up the sensor.

Holy old thread batman!

This thread is almost 4 years old!