3 CAT's stolen in 14 months!

[El_Guapo]

This is getting old. I have just had my third Catalytic converter stolen in 14 months. The first two were from my wife's 2003 Tacoma. Yesterday mine was snaked from my 1997 4Runner Limited.

My insurance is going to replace it (@ $1500) but my agent tells me to expect either my deductible to go way up come renewal time or my insurance to be canceled altogether. BTW I've had 3 windows replaced in those same 14 months so my insurance co. is looking at 6 comprehensive claims in just over 1 yr.

I live in Southern Kalifornia. My question is this. Can I have a straight pipe fitted in and then swap in the CAT when it's time for the Smog Check? Has anybody done this? I'm wondering if this would cause any performance problems?

I looked into buying an aftermarket CAT but I can only find "49 state legal" ones. And of course CA is the missing state. The not CA legal ones can be found at around $210. Dealers are getting about $900 for the CA legal ones.

 

[simple]

Thats some serious BS man... I'm sorry to hear that. This product might be worth checking out.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?t=35307&highlight=catalytic

 

[ric]

woow, that stinks real bad, Id be soo pissed.
Im glad I dont live in Ca. and Im even more glad I have a garage to park my baby in, lol

 

[eskimochaos]

You looked at cat cages? I believe thats the name, saw it at the end of two guys garage or whatever....

Cat cage is the name of the company/product. They are vehicle specific owner installable cat theft deterrent devices.

 

[hulk311]

glue razor blades to your cat

 

[juiceboxer]

Straight Pipes will be loud as hell, you will for sure get pulled over especially in socal, The ticket for running without cats is around $3000:whipping2 Trust me I know from experience

 

[Stick Figure]

You just need to makts to the bolts. It will make you have to grind the welds off if you need to remove the cat e them harder to remove. If they are just bolted on, its way to easy to get under there and pull the 4 bolts. If you want, you can bring it by the house sometime and i will weld the nufor any service or anything, but it would keep people from being able to pull it in a matter of minutes.

 

[El_Guapo]

Juiceboxer,
I was thinking of still running the muffler, only pulling the CAT. Did you have a muffler.

Stick Figure,
After the 1st cat was snaked I had my mechanic weld the nuts to the bolts. Just my luck, the 2nd and 3rd times they had a sawzall. Cut right through the exhaust pipe. Which is why I was thinking that the best way to hold onto my cat is to not have it sitting there unattended in the parking lot.

 

[gizmopt2002]

Juiceboxer, straight pipes are without a muffler or a cat. he would still leave the muffler and take out the cat.

Heres what you do.

remove the cat. Unbolt it and then have some one make a straight pipe with flanges that is the exact same length and bolt it in. When smog comes around its a siple unbolt-install-tighten bolts job.

I seriously doubt any person under your car is going to tattle on you.

 

[Stick Figure]

Stick Figure,
After the 1st cat was snaked I had my mechanic weld the nuts to the bolts. Just my luck, the 2nd and 3rd times they had a sawzall. Cut right through the exhaust pipe. Which is why I was thinking that the best way to hold onto my cat is to not have it sitting there unattended in the parking lot.

well then buy and alarm, any alarm worth anything would go off from a saw cutting through that pipe. Either that or put some armor over it! Some of the rock sliders for the land cruiser offer a cat protection not for theft but for trail damage, but i imagine something similar could be done.

I wouldn't recommend the straight pipe option because it will make things louder and way more raspy, plus the huge fine if you get stopped. I have seen a couple random road side smog stations around here in the past couple of years.

 

[gizmopt2002]

well then buy and alarm, any alarm worth anything would go off from a saw cutting through that pipe. Either that or put some armor over it! Some of the rock sliders for the land cruiser offer a cat protection not for theft but for trail damage, but i imagine something similar could be done.

I wouldn't recommend the straight pipe option because it will make things louder and way more raspy, plus the huge fine if you get stopped. I have seen a couple random road side smog stations around here in the past couple of years.

No no. straight PIPES is with NOTHING. No muffler or cat. My idea is to remove the cat only, leave the muffler. Cats make no difference in sound.

 

[Stick Figure]

lol ..... i understand what you want to do in pulling only the cat and not the muffler, and i will say again it will make it louder and raspier. The cat does a LOT of sound deadening, i've been working on cars in the performance industry for more than 10 years now, i've heard more than a couple vehicles w/ out cats. The other thing to this, is it is illegal, has potentially a huge fine, and then there's the whole environmental impact. and again ca is a bit more strict on the emission regulations down to the mobile dyno that they will randomly pull cars off the road and smog them on the spot. I can't believe that you wouldn't have an alarm on the vehicle yet. That was the first thing i did to mine since it has to spend some time outside.

 

[El_Guapo]

I seriously don't think the alarm would do it. The last two were cut out with a sawzall. I'm thinking that I would have to have the alarm set so sensitive that it would be going off with every car that drove by. Then what if it did go off on a guy with a sawzall? What do I do, go out with a bat and have him pull a gun? Don't think so.

 

[leftyguns21]

I seriously don't think the alarm would do it. The last two were cut out with a sawzall. I'm thinking that I would have to have the alarm set so sensitive that it would be going off with every car that drove by. Then what if it did go off on a guy with a sawzall? What do I do, go out with a bat and have him pull a gun? Don't think so.

i doubt he is out w. a gun. he/she prob has a look out or spotter and they will run away if you come out. they arent going to shoot anyone [at least i hope not] and go to jail forever over stealing an exhaust.

an alarm is a good idea. clifford has good sensors that would work. they have lots of different ones such as noise, motion or even if you tilt the vehicle. you are right in some point with the sensitivity on the alarm it would need to be set fairly high. but the glass sensor one would pick up someone sawing on your cat.

id do what others suggested a cage of some sort. make them work extra hard for it

 

[El_Guapo]

Hey Lefty,
Don't be so sure that CAT thieves don't carry guns. A buddy of mine saw the exact scenario go down at the race track. A guy coming out went into the parking lot and saw someone under his car. He hollered at the guy and the spotter pulled a gun. Maybe it was only a BB gun but he who's going to bother to check. Just get the heck out of there!

I'll look into a Clifford alarm. Do you know of any specific kind, model, etc?

 

[leftyguns21]

i wonder if cause they were at a populated area they felt the need for more protection? thats scary..i would think most thieves at night arent carrying guns. but who knows.

i cant think of model names right now, any good shop can help you though. just keep in mind you get what you pay for. i had a clifford in my last 4runner and it was great. auto-start, windows up/down. i never installed a shock sensor cause they are too touchy, so instead i had the glass sensor and a tilt sensor in case someone tried to steal my rims. all of that installed was around $400...keep in mind that was 9yrs ago so could be more or less now.

 

[NCSCOTT]

Removing the cat will make the exhaust louder, but no louder than putting on a cat back exhaust system.

I gutted a cat on a Blazer I owned because it clogged and I didn't want to spend over $500 at the time to replace it. Just rodded out the guts of the cat and bolted it back in place. There was a noticible hum or buzz at various speeds down the Highway because the hollow cat sat right under the passenger compartment and echoed. I lived in MI at the time and there were no safety or emissions checks. Traded in in that way and no one knew the difference.

I don't think this would help your situation. Some assbag will just try and cut out the hollow cat thinking it is full. Armoring the area is probably the best option with a good alarm system. Just don't armor the area to the point that all the heat from the cat is reflected up into the floor board, this could melt your carpet and possibly cause a fire.

Good luck the whole situation sucks!!!

 

[MercuryEvo]

HAHAHAHA,,,,You better stop buying Cats and get a dog, JK.

seriously though, what kind of life do you live if your going out stealing cat converters. I know its because of the platinum but cmon now!!!

Are they unbolting it or cutting it out?

I'd do a straight pipe. It wont make a huge difference in sound at all with all the other resonators and mufflers you have.








I just feel so bad for you because I know you have no idea, then you go outside and you start the truck and its REAL LOUD and your like "Ahh SHlT, they did it again"

 

[GlennD]

I work in a city radio shop. It takes a whole week for an installer to install a complete police package of cage, radio, MDT, light bar, etc on a Police Interceptor.

The long time frame means we usually have twenty to thirty new crown vics waiting to be installed.

Someone cut through the fence and removed the cats from 9 cars in the back row. They wired the fence back together and no one noticed the theft until the installers started up one car!

Ford charged us 2200 dollars just for the parts so you could have it worse.

 

[El_Guapo]

I'm going with the CatClamp Maxx. I had not heard of it before this thread. Thanks for the info. I'm going to do the 4Runner first.

I did look into adding an alarm but I went to 3 different shops and they all basically said the same thing, it's no use. I'd have to have it set so sensitive that I'd probably get a lot of false alarms or that some dirtbag with a portable saw can have the Cat out and be on his way in no time anyway. I may still add the alarm later, once I have a CatClamp is installed on my wife's Tacoma too.

Thanks to all of you for your responses.
Best Regards,
Tim