Car (or bike) Chat!

[InThe Sticks]

This has been very very common for years now.
I’ve worked for a lot of car dealers and every single one has had cats nicked off the cars sat on the forecourt, let alone the sheer amount of customers who have had the same thing.
Hybrids are the target now as they contain rhodium and palladium which has gone through the roof in terms of cost.
From memory the government changed the rules for what scrap yards could accept and i know first hand that photo id is required when cashing in any scrap metal, but sadly the cats are now sent abroad and sold.
We still occasionally have vans come round to the workshop with the owners asking to buy any scrap cats we have and these vans are packed to the roof with presumably stolen catalytic converters.
With a set of chain cutters, a cat can be removed in well under 30 seconds. I know this because its what i use to remove exhausts from damaged cars at work before replacing them, and not go out at night stealing them.

[InThe Sticks]

Could you perhaps replace with a non-cat system, or is it a legal requirement? I bet you'd gain a bit more bhp and shed some weight without one.

I won't pass an MOT without one if it's a petrol vehicle and if a diesel one if the tester see's that the DPF has been removed or tampered with it'll also fail.
I've failed many cars over years for those very reasons.
That said, many people with performance cars put the cat back on for MOT time then remove it afterwards as turbo petrol/diesel cars hate any sort of restriction after the turbo and it really does kill the power output.
To the OP, get the replacement cat and lambda sensor from Eurocarparts and not a main dealer as they're cheap and OE quality and most of the time they run 40% off promotions if ordered online.
EDIT
They are doing up to 50% off at the moment!

[dave2010]

Sorry if this sounds impertinent, but why was Mrs. Dave collecting a delivery from Waitrose? We don't have a Waitrose, but it does sound like they haven't fully grasped the concept of "delivery service"

Bit cheeky, but it was a result of a complete fuddle by John Lewis maybe a month ago for a click and collect order to a completely different location. The latest delivery was actually for a tablet computer from JL sent to Waitrose for pick-up, since the original attempt to direct the wanted item to a useful location in a timely manner before we went on holiday was totally screwed up. As a result the original ordered item didn’t arrive until days after we’d left, and more to the point, it languished there until a few days ago when we checked to see whether it had been returned to the warehouse and refunded. It hadn’t been!

At least the replacement item did get to Waitrose in time - though given the unfortunate damage to my car it would have been cheaper and less inconvenient to have let the whole thing go.

I can’t describe the people who did this damage in terms which might be acceptable on a civilised web site.

Waitrose do do grocery deliveries I’d think, using Ocado.

[Marco]

That said, many people with performance cars put the cat back on for MOT time then remove it afterwards as turbo petrol/diesel cars hate any sort of restriction after the turbo and it really does kill the power output.

Ain't that the truth, bro (in both respects)!

Marco.

P.S Dave, really sorry to hear what happened. Bastids!

[InThe Sticks]

Even after telling myself multiple times that i wont "mod" the ST, this arrived today after a drunken evening on Ebay..



An Airtec intercooler which will suffice to around 350bhp which is a halfway house for fun and reliability.
The OE one wasn't even two inches tall and designed for a Fiesta Diesel!!
I've lost count of the amount of upgraded IC's iv'e fitted for people, but its a massive bang for buck upgrade!

[Gaz]

Good investment
I put a new turbo on my Saab, that combined with a remap blew the side off the intercooler

[dave2010]

I won't pass an MOT without one if it's a petrol vehicle and if a diesel one if the tester see's that the DPF has been removed or tampered with it'll also fail.
I've failed many cars over years for those very reasons.

That said, many people with performance cars put the cat back on for MOT time then remove it afterwards as turbo petrol/diesel cars hate any sort of restriction after the turbo and it really does kill the power output.

I can't sympathise at all with those people who deliberately flout the rules, though I can understand that the power of a car is reduced with the catalytic converter in place. The catalytic converters are there for a reason - not just as source of revenue for the b*****ds who steal them.

[dave2010]

ms dave has a Hyundai i10. Recently it had two new tyres, but one of them has developed a bulge and will need to be replaced.

In the meantime the car is propped up on the very silly little wheel which Hyundai in its infinite wisdom has decided to fit to some of its vehicles. Ridiculous!

With a proper spare tyre, the car would be driveable, while the first one is fixed - but as it is it is just a useless piece of junk. Even people who don't drive very far would find this a nuisance, but someone who needs to drive regularly as part of work could do without this extra hassle.

I think we'll probably buy a spare wheel, and have some of the spare tyres we already have put on that as a "proper" spare wheel. It's not even as if there is no space to put a spare wheel, though the "clever" arrangement of tools on top of the mini spare wheel won't work with a proper size wheel.

Why do manufacturers do such daft things?

Pity, as otherwise the car is, as one review said, "a cracking little car".

[Gaz]

Whay do they do such daft things?

To make more money

[dave2010]

Whay do they do such daft things?

To make more money

Maybe, but it's c**p.