Catalytic converter likely to be stolen on gen5?

C

corcoran

New member
Hi All,

Just have a quick question for the members of possibility of gen5's catalytic converter being stolen if the vehicle was park on the drive way.

My neighbor across the street just had his 2002 sequoia's catalytic converter stolen over night (the vehicle was park on the driveway).

Does any of our member had this happen to them? As a LEO we had this problem where I worked, but most of the cases that we had taken was primary gen2 and gen3 4runner, non of the gen5 had being reported.

And just as a warning to all member, if the truck are lifted and are not parked in the garage or a secured area, it might be a good idea to have it secure, or making it harder to be cut.

Normally the thief will sell the catalytic converter to the scrap yard for $150-200, because of the platinum that it contain, and it will cost you around $1500-2000 to replace. And in state like California all vehicle need catalytic convertler to pass the smog.

Be aware and drive safe.
 
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Chances are they will either take a secondary catalytic converter if anything, they are a bit easier to get at. The Primary Catalytic Converters are integrated into the exhaust manifolds and would require a lot more effort than most thieves are willing to go through.
 
I worried about this with my 4th gen and almost bought the chains you could buy to keep them from getting stolen. I would have spent $300 on the protection. I decided not to and no one ever touched it and I didn't park in the greatest areas in Atlanta or Denver either. It's up to you but I doubt that it happens to too many people.
 
Let insurance mitigate your damages for the million possible vandalism, theft, crash scenarios you can think of.
 
They can have mine, I'd welcome the extra few hp, besides we don't have smog testing here yet anyway
 
How does one know if it has been removed? Does the exhaust make a different sound? Is there more a concern that something else could be damaged by the thieves in removing the converter? We have no smog checks where I live either. I'm going on a lengthy road trip soon and parking outside a lot.
 
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cbreze said:
How does one know if it has been removed? Does the exhaust make a different sound? Is there more a concern that something else could be damaged by the thieves in removing the converter? We have no smog checks where I live either. I'm going on a lengthy road trip soon and parking outside a lot.
Click to expand...

You will know if the catalytic converter is stolen, it will sound like streight pipe, and you will probably want to get it repair right away, especially if you need vehicle as daily form of transportation, because the sound it's gonna be loud and you won't want to be driving down the road way with all that noise.

The reason that I start this thread is to advice the members to be vigilant and aware. Couple thing you can do is park at well lited area, sensitive motion sencer (if you are welling to have it put on) have your vin or vehicle plate number mark on the convertler, some city in so cal will require the scrip yard to report all the convertler to be recorded and if yours happen to be stolen and are marked with some kid if ID often time it will be return to to you.. In Southern California where I live this had being going on for long time, but this time it had happen too close to where I live.

Let I had mention, catalytic convertler is something that we don't think of much, but if it happen to you, out off pocket money will come quickly because we all need to drive our car.

Be vigilant and aware, safe driving.
 
My brother happend to witness this go down one time in a target parking lot(forgot what city he mentioned). A guy and a lady walked up to a Tacoma, the lady was the watch while the guy through a sawzaw under the truck. By the time my brother got to the front door of target to report it, the guy had already threw the cat and sawzaw out from under the truck and was climbing out from underneath the truck. They were gone by the time security came out to the parking lot.That's how fast they're able to get those cats out. Fn bastards. Only way to really make sure no one gets it. Full skids under the truck. A lot of people don't realize this does happen. Especially new owners of Toyota trucks.
 
cbreze said:
How does one know if it has been removed? Does the exhaust make a different sound? Is there more a concern that something else could be damaged by the thieves in removing the converter? We have no smog checks where I live either. I'm going on a lengthy road trip soon and parking outside a lot.
Click to expand...

lol oh my
 
Is this a new trend to steal the converters ?
My friend took his Mazda tribute for a check up and the tech told him that there is a lot of that going on in Montreal. I am not worried for my truck but this is a bit worrying coming from this thread ...
 
Ryan1975 said:
lol oh my
Click to expand...

Yes, well I would think it would be pretty obvious, Lol. But some of the comments included: "They can have mine" "get a little more HP".
So if I start up after leaving it out in a hotel parking lot all night and I hear loud/strange exhaust noise I should assume its a stolen converter and not some other malfunction? At my age and aches and pains its not possible to crawl under and see WTF's going on. Kinda why I asked the question. If it can be driven sans converter to a repair shop without harm then that would be preferable to waiting for a tow. But also knowing its the converter would be helpful. I dislike "ass-u-ming" ;):
 
In my area we tend to mostly hear about this around the holidays when the mall parking lots are full with lots of vehicles to hit and lots of people moving around.
 
cbreze said:
Yes, well I would think it would be pretty obvious, Lol. But some of the comments included: "They can have mine" "get a little more HP".
So if I start up after leaving it out in a hotel parking lot all night and I hear loud/strange exhaust noise I should assume its a stolen converter and not some other malfunction? At my age and aches and pains its not possible to crawl under and see WTF's going on. Kinda why I asked the question. If it can be driven sans converter to a repair shop without harm then that would be preferable to waiting for a tow. But also knowing its the converter would be helpful. I dislike "ass-u-ming" ;):
Click to expand...

Some meth-head stole mine off my 3rd gen. Witness said he was under and out in about 20 seconds using a cordless recip saw.

If it gets taken you will definitely know it as your exhaust will no longer flow through your muffler. Not in the slightest is it a strange noise, it is obnoxiously loud and I can't think of a worse tradeoff for few extra HP. You might as well run a whistle tip Woot Wooooot!
 
My brother got my lifted 95 4runner, and some crackhead jacked it one night in an awful neighborhood. Meh, stuff happens.
 
Aftermarket Skidplates will most likely help, it will make it harder to get at the exhaust system if you have 1/4" steel plate to your transfercase. :)

 
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