Car stalled, smoked a ton, and the cat converter was bright orange, what is the problem?

Asked by tomp Sep 16, 2011 at 05:01 PM about the 1991 Honda Civic LX

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

The car starts , and idles fine, as long as i do not try to give it any gas. If i do it starts to sputter, and will barely reach over 1,000 rpms

The night the problem started, i was getting on the highway, the check engine light came on, and that was pretty much the end of my ride home.
After i came to a stop, the smoke poured from the bottom of the car. I shut it off, got out, and after the smoke stopped, opened the hood
Nothing seemed to be coming from the engine, but i could see the cat was bright orange, and  looked like it was ready to catch on fire.

Let it cool down, it starts right up, but will not allow me to accelerate.
Still idles fine to this day, but i cannot drive it.
Anyone ever have a problem similar to this?. Check engine light remains on.

3 Answers

295

if the cat was red hot that is a sure sign that it is blocked so is the idles fine but cant go any where :( i say change the cat

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