Drove my other car to work and started looking for a shop to take care of the damage...
Holy fucking shit bubbles in a pool!
I really hate the Air Resources Board. Can't get a catalytic from anywhere but the dealer and the dealer is charging literally thousands JUST for the parts because...well there is no competition.
Anyone have "a guy" that could help the situation?
If you have a friend in another state have a non CARB compliant cat shipped to them. And you have it installed once you get it. Or have a bypass pipe installed where the cat was in the mean time.
I haven't done anything to prevent my cat from being stolen because my SUV is 20 years old. Whenever I purchase a new truck I will definitely take some theft preventive actions.
A couple of months ago I went to the salvage yard looking for a replacement rim for the one that I destroyed driving over the Grapevine. The vehicle I got the rim from had been junked because someone stole the catalytic converter.
These rings are very organized. I saw a video clip caught from a door camera. They are like a Nascar pit crew, roll up in a van. 3 dudes climb out, one uses a floor jack and boosts one side of the car up, two other dudes roll under with Sawzall saws to quickly cut the pipe on either side of the converter. They roll out, drop the car and off they go. Takes about 30 seconds total from time they stop.
Magnaflow and a few other companies make CARB approved "universal" cats. They come with paperwork and everything and are usually a fraction of what dealer installed costs. I've got them on my Camaro SS. It passes smog every time.
I had one stolen off a 2006 Honda Accord (still in great shape, only 130K miles). Two months later, I am still waiting for the part that is on national backorder.
If your cat gets ripped and it's not cost efficient to replace it, replace it with an after market and sell the car in another state like Texas which doesn't have the stringent air quality requirements.
Just make sure to tell the buyer that the cat isn't carb approved.
