Yes thankfully its a super easy job. Good luck on your fix. Liquid wrench is your friend!

You’re most welcome. Thanks for watching. Share this vid with your friends and consider subscribing!

Any time

you're most welcome. Hope it all works out for you.

Thanks! All my engines are always this clean. I can't stand working on dirty engines and cars.

You're most welcome!

Thank you!

Glad I was able to save your life!

Did you ever get the plugs off ? There’s a plastic tab on the plug you just push in on and pull out on the plug.

Hi Wayne, my apologies for not replying sooner. I'm sure you've got this job done already but I thought I'd reply anyways. The problem with being a one man show when making these videos is being unable to get the best camera views to show how to take certain things apart. To get the connector to slide off the bracket you lift the tab up inside where the metal bracket go into the plug and give it a tug and it comes right off. No fighting or black magic of any sorts to get it off. To get the plug halves to come apart firmly press the release button and wiggle the two connector halves apart. Again a very straightforward process.

Hopefully you were able to get this fixed on your own!

Thanks for stopping by!

Is it holding up and pass smog? I need to replace mine soon😢

thanks!

Dorman sells a CARB-compliant cat (673-608) that includes a 5 year/50k mile warranty and costs less than OEM. Might be worth checking out.

Thanks for sharing that. I considered the Dorman one as well BUT I've read lots of horror stories and heard of a lot of complaints about aftermarket cats not holding up to the same emission standards as the genuine cat. The Honda one is SO CHEAPLY made that they should be ashamed of themselves for making such a junky part that costs nearly $1000 to buy!

@@piercedasian Thanks for this video! I just checked with the Honda dealer here in Virginia and the combo is just under $1,300. So maybe the prices vary a lot depending on where you live. The dealer said it would take a week to get the part. This is Monday and I need the car running for a trip on Friday. The Dorman one is available much faster (and cheaper) than original Honda. Where did you see issues with the Dorman has problems?

Thank you very much!

You're welcome!

Glad you enjoyed it

Any time!

This guy has had that manifold on and off several times and each time he oiled and used anti seize. Yours will not come off this easily I can pretty much guarantee that.

Well, removing the old exhaust manifold on my 2007 Fit wasn't trivial, but it actually went fairly well. A friend with American car experience (probably all with cast iron exhaust manifolds) told me it was an impossible job and that I might as well just set fire to the car and collect the insurance money! LOL! But the Fit (and most Hondas?) has a stainless steel exhaust manifold. So it went pretty well for me. Thank goodness! And I installed a brand new manifold to replace it (since one of the exit flange bolts sheared-off and I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to remove it right now -- I needed to get the car back on the road ASAP). Rock 'n Roll!

Yikes, my response is super late but that sucks nuts (not pun intended). Rust is the bane of any mechanics existence but unfortunately we have to deal with it in whatever manner is necessary. The trick is using lots and lots and lots of penetrating lube over the course of several days. I've found that if I spray a good quality penetrating lube and give the part that needs to be dissembled a few good whacks with a hammer and then more penetrating lube that it makes things come apart a lot easier.

Ah while you're comment on having the manifold on and off several times that the first time taking it off wasn't too bad. Similar to my comment above, I had used a tremendous amount of penetrating lube and "snap action" breaking of the nuts and bolts to get the parts free. Lower manifold bolts that were made of steel going into steel were removed again with a lot of lube and impact gun. Overall it wasn't too bad and during reassembly that I used lots of anti-seize to ensure future removals were much easier.

Glad you got this all figured out. Honda manifolds I've found aren't too bad to remove (unless you live in the rust belt). Lots of lube and patience usually gets the job done right.

Thanks for the visit

Thanks!

It's my pleasure

Thanks! She's my baby and lives mostly a garage queen life these days.

Glad you liked it!

I love the crx! She’s mostly a garage queen and She only sees road time under the most perfect condition.

Np! Thanks for stopping by.

Yeah sometimes inspections will catch them if they’re obvious but if they’re on the underside of the manifold then it is harder to catch.

thanks!

You're welcome!

It really is quite simple permitted you have the right tools and that the fasteners are well lubricated and not seized. The intent of my videos isn't to deceive the complexity of the job. I have basic tools to do the work and in the end it could be pure luck that my bolts came out as smoothly as they did. But yeah that far right nut is a bit of challenge - I don't deny that but it does come out with enough coaxing.

Cheap doesn't always translate to being bad. The problem with "inexpensive" cats is that they sometimes lack the build quality (not that the Honda one is "great") and more importantly is that they do not contain enough of the catalyst material (platinum and palladium) needed to properly lower emissions level to what the manufacturer designed it for. I've heard LOTS of great things about Walker cats but I don't have access to them here so rather than me hunting high and low for a substitute that I don't know will work properly that I opted to pay a lot more to get a Honda approved one. My pocket book suffered a lot but it's been many years and a lot of miles with ZERO emissions related problems. Only way to determine if yours is good is to either ask in a forum on the quality of yours, return it for a Honda one or just install it to try and see if you pass an emissions test.

I wish we could but cat manifold combination units here for so cheap. Sadly in Canada everything is expensive.

The problem with installing headers on this specific civic is where would you have a cat converter on the car? Headers are typically reserved for the cars where the cat is further downstream. In my particular civic's case the only logical option that I had while maintaining proper emissions controls is to use the factory cat.

Thanks!

I have welded this manifold so many times in many different ways and it always seems to crack after several months of heat cycling. My time is worth more than the hassles of yanking the manifold out every few months to fix. Yes it did have more power and fuel economy putting in the new cat b/c it wan't leaking oxygen into the exhaust stream and throwing the o2 sensor readings off so the car drove better, was quiter and had marginally more power (if you consider 115HP much power at all). lol

Not sure about the civic hybrid but the general layout of all Hondas are extremely similar. If it look nearly the same then odds are its the same.

cool, reliable car and will easily run for 500, 000 kms without a hitch.

Difficult to say but if you have an exhaust leak that chances are that it will make your car throw DTCs.

No need to replace the o2 sensors unless you're throwing a check engine code OR if the car has super high miles. O2 sensors are technically a maintenance item and DO wear out over time and wear out faster if your car has operational issues like burning oil or coolant (contamination of the exhaust stream). I am at 342,000 kms and I still run the original sensors with zero issue. Black buildup is normal assuming your car is in decent operating condition.

those crack filler fixes won't likely work on the manifold due to the fact that the manifold gets super crazy hot. I've tried welding the seam several times with little success due to the mild steel they use that is really crappy quality. If you're in the USA, you can likely find a good quality new cat for a pretty reasonable price. Cats in Canada are stupid expensive but I didn't have a choice. In many ways I'm glad I replaced b/c I've put well over 50, 000kms on the new cat and I haven't had a single issue yet.

@@piercedasian I ordered one from eBay for $150. Can’t afford a oem from the Honda dealer.

@@piercedasian besides the catalytic converter that is combined with the manifold on my LX civic is there also one underneath the car as usual or with my civic being the LX does it only have the one combined with the manifold?

no definitely not a good idea. IF I had more patience I may have taken the time to tightly bolt the manifold to a perfectly flat metal surface, heat the manifold up with a torch to fully open up the crack and then weld it up.

@@piercedasian If i am not mistaken heat makes metal expand and seals the crack.... welding it in either the hot or cold state won't fix the problem because the metal has simply fatigued and can no longer expand or contract without breaking. Hence it cracked due to fatigue.

Mike your thinking does make sense and whether a new cat will crack or not is dependent on a few things such as if your head is warped or whether or not the new manifold was welded poorly (they all kinda are crappily made with overtly thin stamped steel). Here's the thing I've noticed when I put a new manifold on. Its been at least 50,000kms already and the new cat is holding up perfectly I suspect that by the time the 2nd cat cracks that the car's life would be close to the end anyways. I've been paying close attention to any exhaust leaks and so far none in the years since replacement. Cracks unfortunately don't always form in the same place. I've seem the break at weld seams, runner joints, it is completely random and it is because of the uneven heating and cooling of the manifold + cheap materials used. Exhaust wrapping it could work on an existing cat but if you had a new cat I wouldn't bother until it cracked again. The warp on my particular cat with the flange plate that bolted up to the motor. Placing it on a flat surface it was evident that it was bowed or something weird was going on. The new cat's flange is straight and true and screwing it onto the engine block at the time I distinctly remember seeing it mate up PERFECTLY to my cylinder head which means that my head obviously wasn't warped as bad as the old flange. That being said, the old cat despite repeated reweld fixes didn't work b/c I would weld the manifold out of car when the flange was "unloaded". This basically allowed the small crack to close up making a proper weld difficult. When the repaired manifold was put back onto the car and bolted up snugly then it would pull the bow out of the flange which then "stretches" the metal on the repaired section which means it will crack again. After repeated fixes I gave up and said screw it, put a new one in and I haven't looked back at it. If you get the exhaust wrap for cheap I'd say go for it. I was too lazy to bother with ours and just opted to shell out the funds to buy new - no regrets and the car runs like a champ at 330, 000+kms.

@@piercedasian > Thank you. Much appreciated. I'm thinking since I bought a new maniford/cat for Honda Civic 2001 that I will just install the new one without wrapping it as long as the flange and head is not warped. Thanks again.

While you COULD buy a cheap converter that just remember that your emissions could be elevated (bad for environment if you care) and your car's performance may not be optimal as I believe the catalyst has to have a certain efficiency performance threshold such that the car's emission control systems can dial in the right ratio of fuel/air mixture to get best performance.

I find the best way to get off seized nuts is to use penetrating lube (try liquid wrench I find it works better) and then after soaking for a few hours or days get a long wrench on it and give a quick "blow" or smack with your hand. If you hear it "creak" then apply more lube and then retighten the nut or bolt a tiny bit and walk away. Repeat this process repeatedly until you're able to work the fasteners loose. I wished I filmed the impossible spark plug removal on an old Honda I just worked on last week. The plugs legit couldn't be removed by me or 2 other shops and I took a different approach to get the plugs out and guess what? I got ll the plugs out with ZERO damage. Just took patience, a good amount of liquid wrench and patience of going back and forth to let the penetrant work properly.

I considered that and even tried but the crack kept coming back. I tried everything in my powers to NOT have to spend nearly $1000 on a replacement manifold but alas my previous attempts were futile. Since the new cat was installed the car has run great and it hasn't given me any grief since.

it's really interesting how cats fail. Knock on wood that I have never had a cat fail on me. My civic has 365, 000kms on it and runs like a champ and barely eats any oil. Replaced the cat around 275, 000kms and its been great!

Whoa that's not right. Where did you get the cat converter from and was your engine running properly prior to this replacement? Cats that run cherry red are often a result of unburned fuel getting the cat. I'd identify the problem of why your motor is dumping raw fuel into the cat before continuing to drive the car.

Honda is your best bet. They still make the part and it will be a perfect fit.

Honda dealership by giving them the serial number of the unit. You can retrieve the number by holding a combination of buttons to reveal the s/n which you then take to the parts department at Honda to get the unlock code. Check your owners manual to determine that key press combination.

you could but then you may get a check engine light due to deviating from the factory's emissions design parameters.

The hood deflector?

Ah yes... so the easiest way to tell which cat/header combo is to look at the motor and establish whether or not it has v-tec. The 1.7 literals NON-VTEC DX, LX, EX models (In Canada at least) used the cat combo and the Si and the Acura EL's used the header/ downpipe cat setup. In Canada the Si is the EX in the US, the LX here is the EX in the US and the DX I believe is the DX. The Si in the USA is the SiR in Canada.

I generally look for grooving, cracking and separation. Sometimes old gaskets last forever. I have seen many gaskets especially those in the rust belt just completely fall apart in a span of just a few years so your mileage may vary. Visual inspection is often good enough. Worse case scenario is that it’s easy to swap out IF you feel there is indeed a leak. Hope that helps.

@@piercedasian thanks!

You’re welcome!

hmm interesting. Can you not loosen that bracket off the engine block and get it to fit or is the misalignment really off? Ideally it should be bolted up b/c any engine vibrations will put stress on the exhaust manifold studs and bolts which is part of your cylinder head. I'd strongly recommend you try to loosen that bracket to see if you can get it to align so that things can be all bolted up as how the factory intended it to be. If you can't then there isn't much you really can do.

@@piercedasian Is there a way to loosen the bracket?

@@IntegrityJack I believe it is simply bolted onto the engine block with a bolt or two no?

If the cat is clogged then really the only real way to fix it is to replace the cat with a new one but before doing so you have to find out what is wrong with the engine that caused the cat to clog up in the first place.

That's just low idle and how the harmonics of the engine is playing with the car's chassis. Mine does that too. No cause for concern.

Unfortunately the only places I can suggest are online Honda dealers. I purchased mine from the local Honda dealership and they're not cheap. You could go aftermarket cats BUT the problem I've read is the quality of the cats is often not very good (worse than OE) and they often can make your ECU throw emission error codes.

you can buy parts on these websites, google or rock auto.

is that a good thing or a bad thing?

The cat converter on my car had several large cracks in the manifold and despite repeated rewelding of the cracks that it wasn't in my best interests to keep wasting time on it. A leaky cat converter not only diminishes performance but it can leak deadly carbon monoxide fumes that under the right conditions, can enter the cabin of the car. I did it for safety reasons and the slight improvement in performance was a secondary benefit.

I am not familiar with the VTI oriel. Where is this civic located?

Just twist the bolt until it breaks off the shield and then get the manifold out where you can either ditch the shield altogether or you can drill out the broken bolt and put a new one in. I've run several of my honda's with no heat shield and so far no melted parts under the hood.

@@piercedasian is the bolts that hold the heat shield (top two bolts) bolted into the manifold? Or are they separate bolted into something else? Because I honestly might just crack on them until they snap because I could care less about the heat shield honestly. Also do you have an Instagram I can contact you on and maybe answer some question for me?? I’d really really appreciate it!

what trim line is your civic? Is it an LX? DX? These things should fit perfectly if you got the right cat for the engine application.

piercedasian it’s an LX

hmm, if you're still getting that error there could very well be an exhaust system leak where the cat meets the engine or a crack that you can't see. As crappy as this news is going to be, you're likely going to have to replace the cat as I suspect there is a large enough crack to throw your o2 sensor readings off. Best thing to do is unbolt the cat and do a thorough inspection to identify if and where a crack might exist.

I thought P0420 codes are pretty much replace Cats

@@NeverStop909 Usually. But the cause isn't usually a cat failing on its own. Cats usually last the lifetime of the car assuming its engine is operating healthily. Oil burning, misfiring, exhaust leaks, faulty o2 sensors... anything that can cause an erratic downstream o2 reading will set that code.

the only place to really get them and have them fit perfectly is your local Honda dealership. They're little studs so they can't really cost all that much.

sorry for the late reply. I douse them in a good healthy amount of a quality penetrating lube (not WD-40) and use a wrench and impact gun to bang them out. Worse case is that you cut them out and buy new ones.

that is too difficult to know exactly without understanding what issues you were having in the first place. Was the engine running properly prior to you replacing the cat converter? What was the reason why you had to change it?

@@piercedasian well before I change the cat I put a new crankshaft censor and a oxigen censor as well and when I change the cat I noticed that the other censor was bad as well so I got a new one but now that I got it in place is not working anyway my Honda is 2003 and the censor that blow smoke is top one under the hood and I did all of that cus while driving it always loose power and even die on me .. thank you for you time…

hmm, I'd double check your ignition timing. Since you replace the crankshaft sensor that I'm going to be inclined that it may be related to that issue.

@@piercedasian ok I even was able to drive aster I checked and replaced the crankshaft to see if it was fix and I drove it for like a week before that there was no smoke the smoke was after I change the cat along with the censor im about to try again and keep looking maybe and hopefully is just while for a couple of day s .thank you again..

I bought from a local Alberta acura dealer because strangely they were cheaper than honda for the same exact part. Back when I did this video the cat was something wild already at a cost of $1200-1300? The parts guy cut me a deal and sold this to me for around $1100 all in with taxes. They're $2000 now? Jeepers!

@@piercedasian yup 2k...hmm let me try Acura, thanks

You might be able to get a muffler shop to weld a new flange on the converter. Before going out and buying a new converter that you should look at that option first. Alternatively if you insist on buying a new cat that you can look at ones made by Walker. They seem to have reasonably consistent quality. Just stay away from the ebay specials that tend to be hollow cats that have no real catalysts in them.

@@piercedasian thanks for your reply!

Np!

The EGR on these models are generally located directly to the left of the valve cover.

You are correct, since this is a Canadian LX edition that it comes with the non-VTEC motor. Only the Si's came with the 1.7 VTECs and the SiR's came with the 2 liter high output variant. Good tips on the manifold fix. Never crossed my mind to fix it that way.

no not at all.

You are correct! The integrated cat converter on manifold design is for the non-vtec versions of the motor while the 1.7 liter versions (namely the Si in Canada or the EX in the USA) or even the Acura 1.7 EL will have the cat beneath the car.

@@piercedasian got it makes sense. Thank you so much for the reply

Not problem have a great day!

a US EX model is likely the same cat setup as the VTEC versions of the civic in Canada. it is underneath the car and not integrated with the exhaust manifold. Yes I am still using the factory Honda sensors.

@@piercedasian I’ve been having a lot of trouble with gas mileage and they keep saying that it’s the cat which I replaced or the O2 sensor which I also changed. The mechanics I went to were no help either

@@Bababooey29 A bad cat isn't likely going to cause you poor fuel economy but rather poor engine performance with hardly enough power that it used to have. Can you better describe your issues in great detail by email it to piercedasian@gmail.com?

You can likely find the bracket on a parts diagram if you go to www.hondaautomotiveparts.com

piercedasian I was able to find it and put in a new bracket. It cost a pretty penny $70!

I thought I had replied to this but maybe not. Going with a non-Honda cat can be sketchy because not all manifolds are built to Honda's spec. I've heard of some folks going to aftermarket route with zero issues and some have had nothing but issues with the check engine light coming on. Now as far as what the actual part should be called: The 7th gen civic came with 2 different styles of cat converters. If you're driving the non Si or a Non-vtec civic then you need the cat converter assembly. It is called an assembly b/c the cat converter is at the FRONT of the engine and is part of the exhaust manifold. If you drive a Si or 1.7 VTEC model then you have a separate exhaust manifold and cat converter (the cat converter is located on the downpipe down stream of the engine). I suspect that since you're watching my video that you likely have a 1.7 liter engine non-voter which means you need the cat converter/exhaust manifold assembly. Hope that helps.

I have the same issue.

Odd as this might sound I just received your comment to my video a year later! Hopefully you were able to fix your stripped screw problem.

that really depends on you. If you feel your car is in good shape and has lots of life left in it then why not. I didn't even hesitate to change mine out and it was approaching 275, 000kms. We still drive this car around today and we're approaching 400, 000kms now!

just snug them up until they can't turn anymore. They do NOT need to be torqued down too tightly at all. If I remember correctly it was something very low like 29 ft-lbs.

@@piercedasian Thanks.

with the converter plus labor you're looking at roughly $1400 CAD.

I'm not sure if leaving the shield off would help much since these manifolds are so terribly made. The manifold bolts were reinstalled in the head. No missing parts. Trust me on that one. I'm too anal to leave parts missing on my cars.

they are the same exact nut with I believe 2 of the bottom ones are bolts that are also the same. All use a 12mm head.

I think I either lost one or it was missing one. Do you know where I could find a new one?

easiest place to get one is the local honda dealership or rock auto.

yes as long as you have the civic model where the catalytic converter is directly attached to the manifold like the one shown in this video. On the Si models it is a completely different system so just make sure yours looks the same as mine.

If you don't change the cat you get poorer emissions, it can impact your fuel economy due to the o2 sensor not getting the correct air fuel ratio readings, it hinders engine performance due to inaccurate air fuel ratios, it is noisier and most importantly it can leak carbon monoxide into the engine bay where it can easily enter the passenger compartment. I smelled exhaust inside the car often when the manifold was cracked which was why I replaced it with a new one.

Nothing you just make a liberal mad, and if you live in California you cant smog your car

spring bolts are easy. I just screwed them on. No real compressing was necessary since they compress when you tighten them down.

yes that is definitely and option. I considered having a welding shop properly re-weld the crack in the metal and re-true the flange but given how much shops in my neck of the wood cost and the time I'd need to drive it across town to have it done that I just said forget it and bought a new genuine honda one. Been years since I did this swap and so far so good!

You're absolutely right that I should have mentioned that. It didn't even occur to me to say anything about it since the engines that I've worked on (and removed the manifolds one) are insanely clean and never need cleaning. I will use your feedback for subsequent maintenance vids as I'm sure not everyone's engine is in pristine condition.

I really considered that BUT that is risky since the fuel system is in such close proximity. Those braver than me can do that but I refused to take the risk of burning my car up in my garage.