glowing catalictic converter

[jason borne]

i have a 91 camaro 3.1 v6 and while i was driving down the freeway my rpms droped all the way down i lost throttle power but engine was still running then it shot back up to speed the rpms only droped for a few seconds then back to normal it did this for awhile until the car went dead. temp was fine oil seemed normal but when i looked underneath the car i saw the catalictic converter glowing bright red and engine did not want to start up again until it cooled down. then i just drove it home .any help would be appreciated thank you.

[goldz28]

Cat is bad, should not glow red like that. You're lucky your whole car did not go up in flames.

[ikeyballz]

holy @#$3. your cat is plugged, your exhaust is NOT going through correctly thats why its glowing red. get a new one or else cut it out.. x_x plus, dont floor it too much. cat burns the unburnt gas so if your car is in bad tune it will also heat up more..

[MrPbody]

Something MADE the cat go bad. It sounds like an extreme rich condition. These cars are usually pretty good about it, but occasionally an injector goes haywire, loading the converter with fuel. THAT'S why it glows. That can and will "clog" it, as others have said. Be sure to have a complete diagnostic check done of the system. This will require a trip to a professional technician with the correct electronic "scanner" to read the computer codes and assure the integrity of the system.

Just don't replace the converter and believe everything will be fine. Check it out closely, so you KNOW there are no other problems. This is a major safety issue.

Jim