I have a problem with my Astro and am wondering if any one can help.
I am thinking the problem is the catalytic converter, but not sure. The converter was rattling about a month ago but stopped shortly before this problem occurred. I went to take my daughter to school one day and it ran fine, but when I went to pick her back up I tried to merge with traffic and it bogged down. Anyway I was messing with it today and with it in park I put the pedal to the floor. It bogged down bad probably around 3500 rpm's. After releasing the pedal the engine shook real bad for about 15 seconds then went back to idling normal and smooth. So now I know it is not the transmission. I have replaced the fuel filter already. It starts fine, idles fine and drives fine under 35 mph. I am disappointed that the converter is welded on rather than a bolt on. If this sounds like the converter or something else please let me know, cause it has me confused. All the cars I have ever owned this is the 1st time I had one with this problem.

Thanks for looking.
Tony

 

bumping this one, sorry anyone?

 

Alright thanks Gary, I will remove the O2 sensor and see, I didn't know about doing that. Thanks for the help.

 

Sound like what my 1994 did when it's cat broke apart. At the time it wasn't registered in an emissions zone so I disconnected the exhaust behind the cat and used a pipe and hammer to break it up even more then ran/revved the engine to blow the pieces out. Van ran fine after that.

If you try this, collect the pieces you blow out, that platinum is worth some dough.

 

I live in an area where we have emission testing unfortunately. But I almost just cut it off and replaced it with flex pipe shortly before making my first post. So tempting to do this until I have money to fix it properly, I miss my van so much.

 

What year is your van? How do they test vehicles in your area? When is your van due for it's next test? With the new ODBII plug-in testing it's possible to cheat the after cat O2 sensor and pass.

 

My van is a 92. They test two different ways depending on the age of the vehicle, 1. Plugging in to the vehicle and 2. The old probe in tailpipe.

If I am not mistaken they used the probe on it. But I am not sure. Next test is due in June.

 

1992 definitely tail pipe probe, no O2 cheat for you. 1996 and newer a lot of them have switched to just relying on the ODBII data.

Since you have till June, I'd wipe out the cat. Sell the platinum and reinvest it in the replacement.

 

Well it wasn't the Cat after all. Took it to my mechanic. He removed the Cat to find out it was less than a year old. It was actually junk from the old Cat that clogged up in the exhaust system. i should get it back on Monday, and I can't wait. But thanks to Gary and everyone that replied.

 

So technically it was the cat, just not the current one.