mmsafd

I have been through the ringer with my CEL on my 2002 ES300. Light is still coming on. Apparently it needs cats. Those cost more than I have in the entire car. I will not be doing that. Car runs just fine. I have tape over the CEL light for now. If I wanted to take the bulb out or unplug it how would I go about that? Just pull the insterment cluster? Or is there a better angle of attack from under the dash somewhere? Any real disadvantage to doing that? Thanks.

Oro

You can space the rear 02 sensors back a bit and they will not trigger the light. The car will (or should) still pass emissions - ours did in WA. Check your laws as in some places it may not be legal. In many it is absolutely no issue.

Get the short Dorman 18mm spark-plug non-foulers. Drill the bases out to 1/2” (a little delicate - not a lot of space to work with). Install in front of the down-stream sensors. Borrow a proper 02 wrench from the local auto store if you do not have one.

mmsafd

So the O2 sensor may be causing a cat code to pop up?
Have a link to the extender part?

mmsafd

I found them online. I will get some ordered and give them a try. What is the reason for drilling out the screen? I assume you meant to drill out the screen part. Thanks

Oro

The rear 02 sensors are what sniff to see if the cat is working. They are responsible for triggering the light.

They diameter of the sensor is about 1/2.” The non-foulers need to be opened up to accommodate this. It will fix the light issue. IME, the light is vastly more sensitive than it needs to be. Slightly impaired cat function will not cause an emissions test fail, but will trigger a CEL. It traps you into a massive expense to simply remove the CEL, but not in order to meet emission standards. This is an effective work-around.