Cat problem with 06 Gallardo

A while ago my car threw a CEL 1-5 cylinder error. This error has come on and off periodically for the past couple of weeks. The error would come on and stay on for a day, the next morning it would go off. I decided to drive it down to Brian at Supercar Specialists in Scottsdale to have him look at it. He did some other work on the car, and decided to help look at the CEL at the same time for free (hell of a guy really when it comes to customer service). He said there was something or other loose (car terms for parts especially emissions/cats parts are never my forte) and that he tightened it and all was well. He mentioned the code was for the cat converter and that it indicated that there was a greater than 25 degree difference between the left and right cylinder banks. He started the car periodically over the next week and a half the car was in his shop, never replicating the error. I took the car back and everything was fine until about 150 miles later, when the same error came back. This error can come on suddenly after 150-200 miles and God only knows how long it will stay on. Could be a few hours, sometimes days (like it has been right now).

I am concerned that Brian doesn't have a clue what is wrong with it and says this is going to be really tricky to diagnose. He doesn't think the cats are malfunctioning because he apparently has a device that can measure the air going in and coming out of the cats and he says they are working as expected. He also said he measured the temperatures of the left and right banks manually and during the test runs, the temperature differences were not sufficient to trigger the light.

Right now there are a few possibilities. The same problem may have resurfaced. Another completely different problem may have occurred (although it still behaves in the erratic way that I mentioned). There might be nothing wrong except the computer (gremlins).

One other thing happened. One day while I was driving the E-gear warning came on. I was slowed to a crawl as the car would refuse to shift above 2nd gear. After 2-3 restarts, the warning went away and never came back.

I would like to know if there is anything to actually worry about in this car. Is it safe to drive? Could something catastrophic happen? The car hasn't shown anything wrong in its performance so far. How urgently should I fix it? As I live very far from the dealership and also Brian's shop, it is a great hassle to bring it down there. I will eventually, I just want to know if its okay to drive it around until I do, or should it be kept garaged until someone can look at it? Brian won't say anything on this issue due to liability issues - he says as a Lamborghini mechanic and business owner, he is legally required to tell me that the car must be fixed as soon as possible. However I kinda read in the way he said it that "as soon as possible" has some leeway to it. Since I am hoping not everyone here is in the same legal position Brian is in, I would like some input from the forums!

Also, what do you think might be causing a problem like this? Brian says any problem that can take 200 miles to come on again will be tough to diagnose. I think he's right. Has anyone else experienced this and could advice?

 

I do in fact have an aftermarket exhaust (LOC), but the CEL was thrown before the aftermarket exhaust was installed (I had Brian install the exhaust after we thought he had fixed the CEL error).

I will take that suggestion.

So the important point here is that I can still drive the car around without risking any sort of damage to the car or being stranded somewhere? I plan on bringing the car in for service/repairs in 2 mths when my travel plans require me to go to Scottsdale anyway, and I was hoping to be able to drive the car between now and then, but only if its safe to do so.

 

Thanks for the offer! I hope I don't have to take it but who knows. Car should be going in for the fix in a few weeks, and I will update you on how everything turns out. I have my fingers crossed, last thing anyone wants (including the dealer/mechanic) is a gremlin.