[KeithO]

My wife's car (1995 BMW 525i) has been slowly losing power and having reduced fuel economy over the last 18 months. I rarely drive the car. 2 years ago, it got about 32mpg on highway trips. Yesterday, I drove it for about 150 miles and only got 25-26mph.

It is down on power and very occasionally smells like a morning-after Guiness-fart. I am 90% sure that the cat is shot. I priced OEM replacement cats and every source I checked was in the $485-$500 range (yikes!). There is also the obvious choice of getting a universal cat and making it fit...

How can I be absolutely sure that this cat is bad? I'd like to be completely sure before I commit the time and potential effort on this.

Thanks

[Lucas Black]

seafoam is...............seafoam. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) i believe i just might be the wrong person to ask, but it was recommended to me and my gf to do to her 94 formula. its supposed to clean out the engine of buildup and the like. i think we did some searching on camaroz28.com for other people that had done it, and had done some internet searching about it also. for her formula, we disconnected the tube to her brake booster, and after turning on the car, let it suck 3/4 or a full can of seafoam (the tube has to be able to intake both the seafoam and air or the car will shut off). when you're almost out of seafoam you're supposed to completely submerge the tube so that right before you run out of seafoam the car will shut itself off. from here i'm pretty sure you hook up the brake booster back up, can't remember if we were suppsed to let the car sit for a certain amount of time or not....all i remember is that you turn the car back on, let it run, give it a few revs, and a huge pillow of white smoke emits from your exhaust. after your car is done being a chimney, you take it out and drive it like you stole it for a good 10 minutes or so. as far as i can remember, seemed to help...car just seemed to liven up some. so yeah, since i know i didn't provide enough info. to make anyone comfortable about the stuff, i'd do some research. but for a car that might be consistently seeming more sluggish....seafoam might be a favorable option. hope this helped at least a little.