Somebody stole my Catalytic Converter

My Saab came today, towed from Ohio on the back of one of those raised trailers pulled by a fifth wheel equipped pickup.

Soon as he started the car up.. he had this funny look on his face and I could hear the distinct sound of no exhaust system. Looking up under the car, the cut marks were fresh where somebody had easily gotten under the car and removed the cat.

While this is something I have to hash out with the shipping company.. what sucks is they cut the DOWNPIPE from the turbo to get it. Do now I have to replace a cat and the downpipe.

Damn thieves

He just wanted to get some platinum for his lady friend

We had a battery stolen from my front porch WHILE IT WAS CHARGING.

Yeah, thieves suck.

I'm sorry to correct, but its called a "Cadillac Converter" according to the guy at my local scrap yard.

Good lord.

I heard there was a rash of this here in Denver a few months ago. No worries- I took the cat off the Celica. Good luck cutting the cat off the MR2! I did worry about the 4Runner. I change the oil with no jack. A cordless sawzall and it's gone in a minute.

Seriously, how lame is that? I start dreaming up all kinds of nonsense when I hear about this crap. Like some titanium exhaust or something. Or better yet, some system that electrocutes you if you put a saw blade on my berkeleying exhaust.

well, you could...

http://www.catclamp.com/

so.. seeing as I have to replace the downpipe.. anybody recommend a good performance one?

they took mine last year

...along with the rest of the car.

Hooray for the ghetto. I was very much pro-carpet-bombing the whole of it when it turned up i the 'hood 24 hours later.

Anyway, yeah--the stolen converter thing is becoming pretty prevalent these days.

There were several stolen at my county fair a few years ago during the truck pull. Mostly off SUV's and trucks, give their ground clearance, I think they had a witness or two but never made any arrests. The police around here are a joke, but that's another rant for another time!

The smart thing was they would wait to saw until a truck was pulling. It was loud, and no one would hear them cutting. They hit atleast a dozen trucks that night. I've often wondered what salvage yard would take cat's, but then it dawned upon me that it was probably the salvage yard itself doing the theivery.

I was told that the older Euro cats have more platinum (rhodium??) than newer stuff -- perhaps why your car was targeted.

As for a new downpipe, if you want more performance, your best bet is to remove the cast-iron 90* elbow from the turbo and throw it in a lake. Next, install a downpipe like this:

You'll note that the battery has been moved. You can do this, if you want (http://www.twinsaabs.com/900_repair/battery/battery.asp, as well as the usual forums) or you can tweak your downpipe to clear the battery (some extra heat shielding required and you have to have the correct, narrow battery for Turbos -- lots of Turbos have the wrong one stuffed in). An alternative is to install a FMIC, then put the battery where the stock IC used to go.

No one sells high-performance downpipes any more, at least, not that I'm aware of, so I think you're on your own. You used to be able to get them from Scanwest Autosport in Seattle, and you may bet able to import one from speedparts.se, but it's probably cheapest to have one done up locally or DIY. The engine doesn't make massive power -- I think the 3" pipe that a lot of people use is overkill. IMO/YMMV.

Sadly, it's hard to find a decent stock downpipe in junkyards because the yard will have cut out the cat similarly to how the thieves cut yours.

BTW, if you happen upon fancy equal-length headers on a web search, be aware that they look cool, but no one has ever made more power with them than the stock log.

I thought every salvage yard took cats. But my local one has you sign a log book. If anyone were to bring in more than a couple cats they would get suspicious... unless you owned a shop I suppose.

How much are these things worth?

I had to wonder WTF when a local yard took in over a couple hundred bronze grave markers unquestioned that the county and VFW had provided for veterans at local cemeteries. The operator pleaded dumb.

cwh wrote: How much are these things worth?

scrap usually $50-100

In reply to cwh:

Well-a full WRX cat is worth $65 while a 1/2 Miata cat is worth $55 at my local place. That is most likely underpriced.

I get around $50 for my tiny Honda cats. If those Honda dogs would sell, I'd be rich.

friend of mine does a lot of scrap stuff... cats average around $80 or so around here... i've got 2 in the backyard along with some other metal scrap... just need to barrow a truck and do it doh.

know a year or 2 ago when metal thieves where hitting ALL the forclosed houses it wasn't uncommon for SUV/truck owners to have the cat stollen at major shopping centers (mall mostly)... roll under with a sawzall... shouldn't take more then a min to cut and run.

Local Kia dealer here had about $40k worth of converters stolen from cars he had in a field. He sold just over 700 cars the month before, so he had quite a few cars in that lot.

Derick Freese wrote: I get around $50 for my tiny Honda cats. If those Honda dogs would sell, I'd be rich.

I was just going to ask about this, since I just changed one on my Subaru and I have the old one in the garage.

Is the scrap yard the best place to take them or is there a better option? Somebody must specialize in catalytic converters.

Woody wrote: I was just going to ask about this, since I just changed one on my Subaru and I have the old one in the garage. Is the scrap yard the best place to take them or is there a better option? Somebody must specialize in catalytic converters.

There was a thread here a while back where a Miata racer sold them on Ebay.

My local place gave me $80 for a 91 nissan sentra 1.6L cat. Id say that's pretty good

You now it sucks around here when people start stealing plastic gas cans while your mowing.

Woody wrote: I was just going to ask about this, since I just changed one on my Subaru and I have the old one in the garage. Is the scrap yard the best place to take them or is there a better option? Somebody must specialize in catalytic converters.

You seem to get slightly better prices on ebay, but the local scrap yard is a good option if the hassle it's worth the extra $10-$20 to you.

I'm not talking about a usable cat, this would need welding at least, but the guts are intact, so I was thinking about scrap value.