Its always normal. You dont have to be driving it hard. Check under your hood at night after you drive. But if its an excessive glow, i agree it could be a clogged cat. There will always be codes present if you have a CEL.

 

Mine glows so much that it gives my car a red neon effect, whats your take on that?! haha

 

ill have to agree with Lazer, i doubt she was trying to simulate race conditions at the track.

 

You dont need to be racing for the wastegate/exhaust mani. to glow. Have you ever looked under your hood at night after even a modest drive? A forced induction engine produces extrememly hot temps at the wastegate/turbo/cat even if its running stock boost levels- less than 10lbs of boost. Boost/compressed air=HOT... EVEN if you arent pushing 15+psi and going for the best 1/4 mile time.

 

Nothing new to report other than I also believe that it could be the cat converter. Yes the car is an automatic and it starts fine, the idle isn't really rough, but no punch to it! It will accelerate slowly, the tranny shifts, but sputtering all the while. I contacted a shop in Woodbridge, VA named "Executive foriegn car service" mechanic "Charlie" seemed nice to talk to and knowledgable. Anyone know much about this shop? I don't mind taking it in, but I will be pissed if this is something minor! Thanks. Max!

 

Take it to Autozone. They do free scans. Post the results here and we may be able to help locate the problem more accurately.

 

"onepoint8tee: Its always normal. You dont have to be driving it hard. Check under your hood at night after you drive. But if its an excessive glow, i agree it could be a clogged cat. There will always be codes present if you have a CEL. "

cant... theres a heat shield wrapped around mine =)

 

There is not a heat shield wrapped around the exhuast manifold and there is not a heat shield wrapped around your wastegate. If there is, then thats just fucked up!

 

if it goes just accelerates like **** like stuttering couldnt it be one of the coil packs like its running on 3 cylinders

 

Good Sentence.[:'(]