What is the life span of a catalytic converter?

I had my catalytic converter replaced a year and a half ago. i just took my car in to a mechanic to find out why my check engine light was on. He said that my catalytic converter needs to be replaced. My warranty was up after 12 months so I can't take it back to the original mechanic. How long should a Catalyst converter last and if it is breaking prematurely then what could be the cause?|||Don't know precisely how long it should last, but definitely longer than 12 months.





A catalytic converter uses bits of palladium or platinum metal; exhaust is vented over the metal and the metal catalyses the complete combustion of carbon monoxide (CO) into carbon dioxide (CO(2) ). CO(2) is much less nasty for the environment (despite the bad rap it gets as a greenhouse gas).





Since this doesn't exactly involve moving parts, a catalytic converter failing is either a) the tiny amounts of catalyst that are lost over time have added up and there's not enough catalyst left or b) a mechanical or construction problem with the converter. So really, it should last longer.





Check again with the mechanic; if the check engine light was really caused by the catalytic converter you are better off getting a new (reliable) catalytic converter.|||cat should last over 100.000 miles, might be a bad/faulty construction, things that kill a cat-running rich,leaking injectors, burning oil,over heating the cat {idling for extended periods} back firing {engine malfunction} road hazards {the cat gets hit from running over something} abused when installed {pipes pounded together in a rough manner}