I took my daughter's Nissan to the brakes plus location on 2118 Sadau Ct, Denton, TX 76205 early October, 2025, with a check engine light on. The technicians determined that the catalytic converter was out and needed to be replaced.
The cat was replaced, and my daughter went and picked up the vehicle, I paid $1365. During pick up there was some type of noise coming from underneath the car of which the technician told her that the vehicle was safe to drive, and the noise was coming from the exhaust, which could be fixed later.
My daughter drove the car straight home, I test drove it myself and thought that the noise was too much to be safe. I took the car to my mechanic, who said that brakes plus had put an aftermarket cat, which was too large , and that's what was causing it to rub against the exhaust (or some parts underneath the car). He then advised me to take it back to brakes plus for them to install the correct part
So I decided to return the car to brakes plus. After looking into it again, one of the technicians told my daughter that it was their mistake and that they had put the wrong cat and that it was too big and was hitting some parts underneath the vehicle hence, making that noise. Upon looking further into the issue the manager, Aaron, determined that they had missed the vehicle's emission standards for the state of California and that the car needed two cats. However the rattling noise still continued.
One of the associates (a lady) had tried to blame the rubbing issue on my daughter that she must have hit something on the road thus causing the cat to hit the one of the parts under the car, got me so mad knowing that one of the technicians at the store had discussed that issue while my daughter was picking up the car. So that would not have happened while my daughter drove the car. The check engine light also came back on.
They fixed it again based on CA's emission laws and made some adjustments so the cat would not rub against the parts under the car and picked up the car on 10/17/2025.
Now, yesterday, 11/17/2025, exactly a month later my daughter called me with the vehicle stalled in the middle highway 75 (one of the busiest and dangerous highways in north TX), stating that the car suddenly lost power and could not drive it any further. Luckily there was a tow truck passing by and offered to take the vehicle to the nearest brakes plus in Mckinney, about six minutes away, and charged $150.
Today, 11/18/2025, the technician called and said that the cat that was installed was an after market one and that was what went bad because of the poor quality materials used in them. I am not a mechanic, but I decided to do some research on aftermarket cats and found out that they are the most common source of exhaust-system problems, do not reach OEM efficiency levels, the oxygen sensors detect low catalyst performance, and the converter does not heat up fast enough. The car also loses power at high speeds due to blockage forming.
They also fail easily because:
· low-quality precious metal content
· poor welds and inter-substrate materials
· excessive unburned fuel entering the exhaust
Today my wife and I spoke to Aaron (Denton location manager) about the issue again and what the other brakes plus technician had said about after market cat not being efficient. Aaron, then spoke to the tech in Mckinney and came back stating that the issue was not actually the cat that he had replace but the cat is failing because of the issue that had caused it to fall originally. This sounded so ridiculous to come from a store manager because he is the one who originally diagnosed the vehicle and replaced the cat, so if there was an original issue that caused the original cat to fail, why did he not fix it then and replace the cat? Instead of installing an aftermarket cat only to get rid of the check engine light.
Now, the Mckinney brakes plus have written a quote service the fuel induction, fuel injector, tune up, and replace the catalytic converter. We have asked Aaron to take care of all the work that needs to get the vehicle fixed but said he would need to reach out to the regional manager. read more