Beware of Cat burglars

[Rogue]

Background:
My mom owns a dry cleaners and has Chevy Express full size van to make deliveries.

Story:
This morning my mom called me. Apparently someone came by the cleaners and cut off the catalytic converters last night. From the looks of it, they just used a sawzall. I went by there to take a look and see what it would take to fix it. The thieves were nice enough to leave the O2 sensors.

After calling a couple dealerships I had to go to Tom Jumper in Roswell to pick up the part. It is one huge Y-pipe with both cats that bolts right up to the exhaust manifolds and runs halfway back the van.

$700 and an hour later my mom had a new pair of catalytic converters. The removal was surprisingly easy. 8 nuts and the old stuff was off. Installing was a little more difficult because it was one whole piece instead of the 3 I took off. The only difficult part was removing the exhaust hanger bracket.

So, if you have a vehicle that's high off the ground beware, because this is becoming a normal occurrence. Thieves are taking the cats and selling them at scrap yards for $50+.

 

[jville]

i wish they would stop by my house my 97 jimmy has a clogged cat and it pouring down rain so i can't go cut it off now.

 

[wingman0]

I would love to see there faces it they tried that with my 323. lol

 

[Shadow102]

yeah this is a big thing at the dealerships...its always a decent laugh when they roll a brand new tundra or 4 runner running wide open exhaust because somebody cut off the cats in the middle of the night. I think we had 6-7 cars hit in one night at some point. The latest one was a brand new 5.7L tundra with 23miles on it that had them cut off cost the dealership a little over $1100 in just parts for all 4 cats

 

[TheDirtyGoatee]

Wait, a new Tundra has 4 cats? Holy s***. Would be pretty awesome pulling into a dealership sounding louder than a Harley during WOT.

 

[aws140]

i had someone on the rx7 forum offer me more than that for stock cats off of an 85 rx7!

 

[BigB]

I suppose its better than turd burglars?

 

[Rogue]

i had someone on the rx7 forum offer me more than that for stock cats off of an 85 rx7!

it's the scrap yard offering the money. they turn around and sell them for another profit.

 

[Aricjm15]

you can sell them on ebay for much more money then what you would get from a scrap yard, I made over $150 from the cat off my car. There is big money in it and its a problem everywhere, over the winter the local hyundai dealer had the cats cut off of almost every car on the lot

 

[Foolish]

Finally an excuse to lower the MPV! Think my wife will go for it?

 

[TheDirtyGoatee]

DO IT!!!

 

[dkswim]

I read the title expecting to here about feline shenanigans o well. Thy will never get my cats, unless they break into the house.

 

[DE31]

i want to see the look of the guy who tries that on a car with a gutted stock cat.... not saying that my car has a stealthy gutted stock cat that looks like its a stock exhaust or anything....

 

[EvilJen]

I can sell my cat for scrap?! (omg) I bet I could get quite a bit. That dang kitty weighs at least 16 lbs.!

 

[jville]

i want to see the look of the guy who tries that on a car with a gutted stock cat.... not saying that my car has a stealthy gutted stock cat that looks like its a stock exhaust or anything....

agreed, i gutted my second cat and put it back in, i'm in fl now but back in ny where i used to live its there for ny inspections, me being and inspector i just loook to see em, never actually checked the function.