shilborn

Hi Gary, Thanks for your response. The mechanic looked at it and took apart the car to look at the converter. He suggested replacing the oxygen sensor. They have been cleaned a couple of times and were last replaced three years ago. A bit more context - I have been driving the car in countries with poor fuel quality, Panama, which I have been told degrades the sensors faster. What is cardoc? And where would you install the spacer? Do you have any suggestions for what the mechanic could look for? If I gave him specific things to look for, I imagine he could try to nail it down. I was going to go for a sensor in the meanwhile as apparently the car is less fuel efficient when the oxygen sensors aren't working. Any thoughts? Stephanie

Hi there, I'm living overseas in southeastern europe. There is a dealer nearby in Croatia and Slovenia but it's a lot cheaper to just have a mechanic here help with my problem. The check engine light comes on when I drive over 3 hours on the highway - it's happened a couple of times. I now just clear the error message when it comes on. It is error code P0420 - catalyst efficiency below threshold (Bank one). The dealer checked it out for 15 minutes and said I needed to replace the catalytic converter. A mechanic in Bosnia told me that the catalytic converter looked ok and I should just replace the oxygen sensor. My question is - what is bank one on a Subaru Outback 2005 limited? How do I know which sensor to replace? I'm nowhere close to being a car expert so appreciate any advice.