JimAttrill Posted March 11, 2007 Share Posted March 11, 2007 We all know how expensive these things are. This was brought back to me by visiting our local exhaust shop on Friday. There was a pile of CATs in the corner, must have been a hundred or so. The owner tells me that they remove them to make the vehicles run better and pay the owners for the scrap value. (There is no MOT or emission controls here - yet) What surprises me is that some enterprising soul has not started a 'exhaust hire' place in the UK where you can have a lovely exhaust system fitted complete with CATs and so on, get your MOT and then have the fancy system changed back to your old stuffed one. Or does your labour cost over there make this an uneconomic idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted March 11, 2007 Share Posted March 11, 2007 The trouble is you are asking this from the point of view of one who understands vehicle technology,but without an acceptance of annual emissions tests.Here in the UK people seem to moan alot when faced with a big bill,but if the cat is failing then they have little choice.The other thing is that there are many choices of supply here and lots of competition on price,so often its not that bad. Thing that grates with me is the way that garages replace expensive oxygen sensors and or cats whilst guessing at the actual fault - and it still does not fix it.Yes,it is happening,lots. Often very little input and no parts are required to turn a pile of s--t into a smooth running motor with excellent emissions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustyrangie Posted March 11, 2007 Share Posted March 11, 2007 Agree with last point. It annoys me too that they'll continue replacing bits until they find the fault and charge you for the lot! This happened to a mate of mine a while back (not on a LR product)....we (3 telecomms engineers) eventually found a corroded connection on his ECU plug, 2 minutes and a squirt of electrolube and the job was a good'un. The garage, a main dealer, had swapped out most of the EFi kit including the ECU! and gave him a nice big bill...he was not a happy bunny to say the least. Grudginly they agreed to take the ECU back but wouldn't budge on the rest as they claimed they were at the end of their service life anyway! Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted March 12, 2007 Author Share Posted March 12, 2007 I see your probems, which we all suffer from with LR stealers. ie we change all the bits but if it doesn't fix the problem you pay anyway. But my question still stands: how about an MOT fixing business changing new CATs ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I see your probems, which we all suffer from with LR stealers. ie we change all the bits but if it doesn't fix the problem you pay anyway. But my question still stands: how about an MOT fixing business changing new CATs ? Nope,it wouldnt work.reading a trade paper at smoko this morning and cats are available for as little as £40 +Vat - only £120 odd for BMW's etc.Never worth the effort of taking them off again.I have a different idea tho,what emissions laws do you have in SA ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted March 14, 2007 Author Share Posted March 14, 2007 None whatsoever, this is why cats are removed for better performance and scrap value. The average age of a car is about 13 years (no rust on the highveld and no MOT) so 99% of cars do not have cats anyway. I left the UK in 1975, and can remember swopping sets of wheels to get cars through the MOT (or the TUV test in Krautland) which gave me this idea. I had heard that cats were so expensive that they exceed the value of a car that is a couple of years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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