Likelihood of 4th Gen V8 Cats being stolen

[SolRayz]

A friend of ours with 1st Gen Sequoia had both her cats stolen yesterday in broad daylight at a strip mall parking lot here in Vegas. Out of shear paranoia, this has sparked an obsessive fact finding mission on the likelihood of our cats being stolen out of our V8 4Runners.

If I'm not mistaken we have three cats, two primary located after the exhaust manifold, and virtually inaccessible to would be thieves. Then a third secondary cat on the passenger side that is easily accessible.

I've scoured the forums, but have not seen a whole lot in terms of thefts from our vehicles. Is this even a "thing" with our V8's?

 

[Drcoffee]

Any Vehicle that is lifted is a target, especially in a low income area. I wouldnt risk jail time for $150 theft, but illegals and other poor, drug dependent people will.

I put a Cat Clamp on my daughter’s 3rd gen T4r when she took it to college. Never had a problem. It uses SS cable to secure it, which is not easy to cut with the tool of choice, cordless sawzall. Well worth the money. If they want to steal it they would need to bring a huge bolt cutter too.

Catalytic Converter | Difficult | Cut | Cat Clamp

 

[rwh963]

the money is in the big main cat, not the small ones. most aftermarket cats don't have the PM's that the manufactures are required to have (thus don't last as long). on newer vehicles with clean exhausts, i would personally consider swapping in a cheap cat and securing the original.

 

[rrdouleh]

I dont think any particular car is sought after but its happening here in the northeast too according to law enforcement.

 

[Montego Murph]

I dont think any particular car is sought after....

From what I understand, Toyota Prius vehicles have been hit pretty hard because the CC's have a higher value.

 

[T4R03]

Any Vehicle that is lifted is a target, especially in a low income area. I wouldnt risk jail time for $150 theft, but illegals and other poor, drug dependent people will.

I put a Cat Clamp on my daughter’s 3rd gen T4r when she took it to college. Never had a problem. It uses SS cable to secure it, which is not easy to cut with the tool of choice, cordless sawzall. Well worth the money. If they want to steal it they would need to bring a huge bolt cutter too.

Catalytic Converter | Difficult | Cut | Cat Clamp

Yikes.. I know this forum isn’t really for arguing and or bringing up such topics but way to label illegals and poor people as catalytic converter thieves... and or thieves in general. Not really offended by the comment just don’t think “illegal aliens” and people of lower income should be looked at that way. To answer the OPs question, do your best to keep your vehicle in a safe place. There really isn’t a 100% way of avoiding this issue. If they did it to me it’d be like free labor because I appear to be needing mine replaced soon anyway

 

[Drcoffee]

Yikes.. I know this forum isn’t really for arguing and or bringing up such topics but way to label illegals and poor people as catalytic converter thieves... and or thieves in general. Not really offended by the comment just don’t think “illegal aliens” and people of lower income should be looked at that way. To answer the OPs question, do your best to keep your vehicle in a safe place. There really isn’t a 100% way of avoiding this issue. If they did it to me it’d be like free labor because I appear to be needing mine replaced soon anyway ����

I see that you are new here. If you get offended easily, start taking zanex. Im so tired of being schooled by a man-child who feels free speech only applies to them. Get over yourself. There is a 100% chance you wont see an attorney or Doctor or NASA scientist on surveilance video crawling under a 20 year old 4runner cutting off a CAT to sell it for $150. Prove me wrong!!
op2:

Go “Cancel yourself”

 

[T4R03]

I see that you are new here. If you get offended easily, start taking zanex. Im so tired of being schooled by a man-child who feels free speech only applies to them. Get over yourself. There is a 100% chance you wont see an attorney or Doctor or NASA scientist on surveilance video crawling under a 20 year old 4runner cutting off a CAT to sell it for $150. Prove me wrong!!
op2:

Go “Cancel yourself”

Well first off I wasn’t offended by your comment honestly. I know a thief wouldn’t be someone of that high of a stature stealing cats. But you’d be surprised at how some thieves look. You wouldn’t even guess they’re a thief at first glance. And also you spelled Xanax wrong.

 

[Drcoffee]

Well first off I wasn’t offended by your comment honestly. I know a thief wouldn’t be someone of that high of a stature stealing cats. But you’d be surprised at how some thieves look. You wouldn’t even guess they’re a thief at first glance. And also you spelled Xanax wrong.

You may not have been offended personally, but you were offended for the people I spoke of. Enough of the SJW mentality.

I dont take drugs, so I guess you caught me. But when you call someone out, expect to get a response.

Note: I agree with you on this point. The biggest thieves are Attorneys and Doctors. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes and women too. But I was specifically talking about stealing a CAT off a truck.

*correcting peoples spelling on the internet is very immature. Nobody likes a spelling nazi

 

[AuSeeker]

You may not have been offended personally, but you were offended for the people I spoke of. Enough of the SJW mentality.

I dont take drugs, so I guess you caught me. But when you call someone out, expect to get a response.

Note: I agree with you on this point. The biggest thieves are Attorneys and Doctors. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes and women too. But I was specifically talking about stealing a CAT off a truck.

*correcting peoples spelling on the internet is very immature. Nobody likes a spelling nazi

Not really correcting your spelling, but instead your grammar...but Nazi is a proper noun and should capitalized!

Sorry I just couldn't help my immature self! I'm not a grammar Nazi, just the grammarolice: :lol:

 

[NCHornet]

I would think this has more to do with where you live and park than what you drive? But what do I know, I live in a small southern town where I can leave my truck running when I run into the quick stop to get a snack and cold drink without worrying if my truck will be there when I come back. Yes, places like this still do exist and I consider myself blessed to call it Home. A quick Google search brought up several devices that claim they can prevent your cats from being stolen by these scumbags. I hope you can find that one of these might work for you and the vehicles you drive and the areas you must park in.
NCH

 

[SolRayz]

the money is in the big main cat, not the small ones. most aftermarket cats don't have the PM's that the manufactures are required to have (thus don't last as long). on newer vehicles with clean exhausts, i would personally consider swapping in a cheap cat and securing the original.

The main Cat is my main concern. I checked that a replacement OEM part is $1066. Unbelievable.

Would really like to have a steel plate put in underneath, but there doesn't seem to be any good options short of fabricating one myself. The Budbuilt skid plate doesn't seem to fully cover the main Cat from my research.

Not sure how to go about protecting this thing.

 

[triethylborane]

A friend that is a pilot based out of SEATAC mentioned the Port of Seattle has reported a rise in cat theft in the last few months. The City of SeaTac is not the best, the areas of the surrounding cities are not so hot sometimes, and it has Pac Highway that sends traffic right to it . . . and Pac Highway always has some characters. Not in any way related to OPs question, but thought it was interesting, particularly given the spot price of platinum has gone up from $800s to $1200s within 12 months.

 

[bmorey]

I've been thinking about this as well considering we have 3 cats to take. Especially with a lifted truck, thieves wouldn't even have to jack up the car.

I think at the bare minimum, etching the vin number (or a partial sequence at least) would be a good start. That wouldn't prevent the theft necessarily, but it may deter (even if it simply caused a thief to choose the next car in the parking lot)...

I've been brainstorming about wrapping the adjacent sides of the cats with some sort of tool-dulling media or abrasive that would be stronger than the teeth of a sawsall blade. I know its a shot in the dark, but I figure if we can all bounce ideas of how, maybe we could find a good solution.

 

[SolRayz]

I've been thinking about this as well considering we have 3 cats to take. Especially with a lifted truck, thieves wouldn't even have to jack up the car.

I think at the bare minimum, etching the vin number (or a partial sequence at least) would be a good start. That wouldn't prevent the theft necessarily, but it may deter (even if it simply caused a thief to choose the next car in the parking lot)...

I've been brainstorming about wrapping the adjacent sides of the cats with some sort of tool-dulling media or abrasive that would be stronger than the teeth of a sawsall blade. I know its a shot in the dark, but I figure if we can all bounce ideas of how, maybe we could find a good solution.

The front end of the two smaller Cats are inaccessible to a cutting saw, and unbolting would be impossible without removing the headers. So those are irrelevant.

The larger Cat that connects to the Y-pipe is more of a concern and the most expensive to replace. It would take cutting the front pipe only and then unbolting two bolts on the rear, which in many ways is how they steal the Prius Cats.

Someone with steel fabrication abilities should consider a bolt plate that would simply deter thieves, or so slow them down significantly, where they may simply move on. I would be willing to pay top dollar for this solution if anyone is willing.

 

[duffdog]

The easiest and best solution is to get aftermarket full skid plates and completely remove the rear cat y-pipe and replace it with one of these:

URD Off Road Y Pipe for 2005-2009 4Runner V8 - Underdog Racing Development

Then, buy 2 mini-cats from me and put them on your o2 sensors for no codes, more power, better mpg and no chance of your cats getting stolen.:naughty:

 

[randy88fj62]

I bought an aluminum tranmission skid plate from Talon's Garage and it completely covers the rear cats. It's an excellent design that bolts on in under 10 minutes. Love it.

Talons Garage | F-150 Skid Plates

 

[SolRayz]

I bought an aluminum tranmission skid plate from Talon's Garage and it completely covers the rear cats. It's an excellent design that bolts on in under 10 minutes. Love it.

Talons Garage | F-150 Skid Plates

That's exactly what I'm looking for! So this is a direct bolt on? No undercarriage modifications required? Thanks for the link!

 

[Montego Murph]

That's a great idea.

I can't visualize where it would mount. Does the mounting location interfere with driveshaft greasing?

 

[randy88fj62]

That's exactly what I'm looking for! So this is a direct bolt on? No undercarriage modifications required? Thanks for the link!

This is a direct bolt on with no mods required. Install was fast and all the holes lined up perfectly. He also supplied new JIS hardware so no fussing with 13mm DIN bolt heads.