I have a 2002 Escape, V6 3.0 Auto. The engine light came on a while ago, and at the advise of the mechanic (I trust him, BTW), I changed the EGR valve. Having done some research AFTERWARDS, this forum said it was likely the DFPE. Anyways, after the EGR was changed, the light came back on. So, I changed the DFPE. 2 days later, the light is on again, and now I smell gas, and it starts hard on cold, and idles a little rough. Mechanic (who I still trust, BTW) says sometimes the codes are misleading, and that it APPEARS to be the catalytic converter. Now, I ask you, am I too trusting?
Any OTHER guesses on what it might be?

 

There shouldn't be any issue with the cat. converter yet on a 2002 model. It sounds like a fuel/air mixture problem.

 

If you had misfiring and rough running, you could have plugged a CAT, I see that it is all too common, based on this and other Escape forums.

P.S. It's expensive unless you are under the 80000 mile federal emissions warranty.

 

How many miles are on your Escape? If it smells like gas in the car, I wonder if the vapor management system might be involved. I recently replaced the evap. fuel management valve and the DPFE sensor on my '02 (didn't have a gas smell, though). Normally, a plugged cat doesn't show up at idle unless it is in really really bad shape. Bad cats usually let themselves be known by poor fuel mileage and sluggish acceleration. These things can be tough to pin down.

 

It does not run rough (at least not too often) or misfires. It has 108,000KM's (yes I'm Canadian) and isn't under warrenty anymore. There is an extended warrenty, but it doesn't seem to cover fuel issues. The smell is only when you are idling. As for fuel mileage, it seems to be getting close to what it is rated for and it doesn't seem to have sluggish acceleration, as most of the time I get whiplash trying to slowly accelerate and it does not like to do that. I will look into the vapor management system and see what that is all about. Thanks for the advise so far.