catalytic convertor aftermarket ?

Took my 99 in for an "A" service today. I was running perfectly but the check engine light came on a few days ago. Paid $350 cdn for the bill and was told that the cat. convertors were plugged. $ 2000 plus to change them.

On the trip home, the vehicle would barely climb two long hills on the highway. Dealers response is that he already told me the problem. I think it is quite a coincidence that it starts to act up a mere ten minutes after leaving the dealership.

Is there anything I can check ? Is there any source of aftermarket convertors ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

allen

[suginami]

A good source for after market cats with original equipment quality is:

www.timevalve.com

[coachgeo]

You are aware (as the dealer told you) that the cat is bad. Since the degree of bad was not yet causing a performance issue; call the dealer back and tell you are aware of that and thank you for the informaion BUTTTTTT..... the NEW problem did not exist till you left their shop and you want it investigated because the timming of the NEW problem makes it a 60/40 chance that something occured in their shop that is causing the NEW performance issues.

You want them to make sure that nothing accidently was left dissconnected, unplugged etc. and you want to know HOW they determined the Cat was bad and if the process in which they checked the cat could cause additional cat damage! (like did they hit it with a hammer to listen for a a rattle... thus dislodgeing more material in the Cat.)

Either way they owe you an investigation into the NEW power loss you are experienceing.

My experience (non MB) has been that at first Cat failure causes occasional performace problems when the loose pieces in the Cat block the exhaust exit thus creating a back pressure problem.

[coachgeo]

Note:
by Alex lych (sp?) in another post

Had a similar problem on a 1998 ML320 and the culprit turned out to be the catalytic converter. Although the vehicle was out of warranty (63k miles), the converter was replaced free of charge under the federally-mandated 70k mile/7-year emmissions warranty.

[tabo]

how many miles you got on your ML? since cats have extended warranty on them...

It has 96,000 on it.