San Carlos & Valley Springs Auto Repair

Toole's Garage in San Carlos offers comprehensive emissions diagnostics and repairs, including catalytic converter replacement. Emissions system includes sensors, computers, and of course, the catalytic converter. Fortunately, catalytic converters rarely fail, especially now that they are protected by sensors that let the onboard computer know when potentially damaging conditions occur. However, high prices of the precious metals that go into manufacturing catalytic converters have cause a nationwide problem - catalytic converter theft. So vast majority of catalytic converter replacements we perform are not because of catalytic converter failure, but because of theft. If the catalytic converter in your vehicle fails, you will see the check engine light illuminated. The good news is that this warning light can be illuminated for hundreds of reasons, most of them not nearly as expensive to correct as the catalytic converter failure. However, if you notice decreased engine performanc ... read more

CarMD.com released its annual study of check engine light-related repairs for 2023. Not surprisingly, catalytic converter replacement and oxygen sensor replacement made the top of the list – high cost of precious metals makes catalytic converter theft a lucrative pastime. Oxygen sensor often gets damaged during the theft, hence it’s 2nd position on the list. Here is the list with additional information about the components on the list: Catalytic converter replacement – with no moving parts, catalytic converters rarely fail. A vast majority of catalytic converter replacements is due to theft. Oxygen sensor replacement– oxygen sensors often are damaged during catalytic converter t ... read more

Living in the Bay Area we all have heard about catalytic converter thefts, as the Bay Area favorite, Toyota Prius, is the prime target of the thieves. Now Carfax, a company where repair shops report auto repair data, estimated that in 2022 over 153,000 vehicles were targeted. Insurance companies reported only 52,000 claims for stolen catalytic converters – so why the discrepancy? We thought about it and looking at the data at Toole’s Garage in San Carlos, we come to the conclusion that Carfax is right. We see a lot of vehicles with stolen catalytic converters that are older vehicles, without comprehensive insurance, so the owners pay out-of-pocket for the repairs – hence there is no report to the insurance company, but Carfax gets to count such cars in their statistics. If you take into account that catalytic converters are often on back-order, meaning one has to wait for the manufacturer to deliver new ones, it makes sense that the number of catalytic converter the ... read more