My 2013 g37 with 175k miles was running fine until I started having acceleration issues for about a month. It got a bit better after an oil change but started getting worse again. I had to put regular gas in when the pipeline thing happened and everyone was out of premium which I hate to do but I was almost completely on E.

Once that ran out, I filled up with 93 octane as usual and the next day my car magically started driving like new. A few days later my light came on and the code read p0420. It didn’t feel like anything was wrong but I brought it in and mechanic told me my cat is clogged and needs to be replaced $1500-$2500 depending on where the part comes from. After running diagnostic tests he didn’t find any leaks or cause of the clog nor has he taken it apart to see the clog.
I told him I wanted to try cataclean before spending that kind of money and he warned me my engine will blow due to the clog and the cataclean will worsen the problem.

Does this sound accurate? Do I have any other options than to replace the cat? CarMax valued my trade in price around $4k and it doesn’t seem worth it to pay half the cost of the car in repairs.

 

You can always get high flow cats which is a cheaper alternative.

https://www.enjukuracing.com/product...xoClLIQAvD_BwE

 

And you can get cats for the G37 for $150 or less on eBay and a exhaust shop should charge around $200 or less to put it on.