Cat Converter is Fubar'd

[7MsuprO]

Hey guys,

A couple of days ago I started hearing rattling in my exhaust. I figured it was the cat and I finally got under the car today and found out the internals of it are "broken" and loose inside it, rattling around every time i push the gas pedal. This cat is about 6 months old btw and it was fine when i was at the muffler shop 3 weeks ago. I have custom 3" piping with a straight through design magnaflow muffler. My question is, is there any way the internals will break up enough and make their way out of the exhaust eventually or am i gonna have to take it off?

Thanks

 

[plaaya69]

If it is not to hard depending on your custom 3" piping I would take the cat off of the car, but if the cat has a warranty you should take it to your muffler shop.

 

[Finnon]

do you guys need to have the cat to pass emisions? in the uk owners with cats usually just get rid of em as the supra will pass mot anyway as emisions are still low enough (unless its a very very late car as it then is post april 1992 when cats became mandatory i beleive)

 

[7MsuprO]

Well the only sucky thing about that is it's all welded with no flanges. I bought the car recently off a friend in CA but im in Ohio at the moment so taking it back isn't an option (which sucks because the shop gave a 1 yr warranty). I may just take the exhaust of my 88 and put it on this one. meh...

 

[slidebabyslide]

do you guys need to have the cat to pass emisions? in the uk owners with cats usually just get rid of em as the supra will pass mot anyway as emisions are still low enough (unless its a very very late car as it then is post april 1992 when cats became mandatory i beleive)

I you live in california you need to have all of your emission system to be fully intact and functional . They check for every thing. i don't know about other states.

 

[themadhatter]

I live in VA and theres no emissions only a yearly inspection there the look to see if theres any thing that resembules a cat under the car lol

 

[plaaya69]

Where I live they just put the hose to the exhaust and give me the test results but good thing they do not look under the car or under the hood:evil2: because I would defiantly not pass:biglaugh:.

 

[7MsuprO]

I dont have to pass any inspections here in Ohio but I was wondering if this will sort itself out by blowing out of the exhaust. It's probably wishful thinking.

 

[plaaya69]

You might get it out of the cat but then you might also get it stuck in your magnaflow muffler so I would try and take the cat off of your Supra so you do not get it in the muffler.

 

[foreverpsycotic]

is the exhaust welded to the DP, you could get the stuff out from that end as well.

 

[Neodeuccio]

If the exhaust/cat are under warrantee, I'd deffinately bring it to whoever you got it from and make them fix it. Otherwise, I'd actually cut the cat out of the exhaust and put a new one in it's place using v-bands or something.

Upside: future work on the exhaust will be a piece of cake.
Downside: v-bands cost like $40 for a set, including flanges, and they'll have to be welded in place.

I'm in upstate NY, so being able to tear down your exhaust easily is important. They put so damned much salt on the roads that our cars rust out in only a few years. But the other nice thing with being able to drop your cat in just a few minutes is that you can have a gutted cat that you swap in when you're not getting an inspection. That way you pass the sniffer, and you get more power. :biglaugh:

 

[Facime]

When I got "Lady" from the impound yard I found her at she wouldnt run for crap. After a couple of full days working on it I discovered that a broken piece of the cat had lodged itself in the exit if the cat and was creating so much back pressure it wouldnt run. This could definately happen to you if you just let it go without doing anything about it. It may already have tossed some smaller pieces int the rest of the exhaust and may damage your muffler as well.

A good muffler shop should be able to help you, and I recommend you do that.

 

[7MsuprO]

Thanks guys, I decided to just put the exhaust from my 88 on this car. It's better anyway and that car's out of commission at the moment.