Our trusty old and slightly battered Gen2 Prius has just had its cat stolen. Twice in 6 months. Sadly, it's now gone to the big Toyota showroom in the sky the second time around and we're toying with the idea of getting a slightly less old and slightly less battered Gen3 or even, bank manager allowing, Gen4 Prius. However, the other half is understandably reticent about getting another Prius in case the same thing happens. The spike in thefts in the UK has turned into an epidemic. When we spoke to the garage who was assessing our car, they said the price of OEM and aftermarket cats has doubled in London over the last few months due to the huge demand. I've been Googling aplenty including searching on the forums, but it looks like the problem only affects Gen2 owners (much empathy on that front), and the engineering on Gen3 and Gen4 means the cats aren't worth as much for scrap and harder to steal. Is that right? Would welcome expertise from the wise folks here. Much thanks in advance.
Hi Toodlepip! Sorry to hear about your Prius being attacked by these criminals twice! I’m presuming you had an OEM replacement installed after the first theft, or they’re generally unlikely to try cutting it out a 2nd time. Please confirm. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve personally read of only two reports on Prius Chat of Gen 3’s being molested by the Grand Theft CAT gang. One of them was supposed to be a Plug-in version. Chances are, they were copycat opportunist thefts by morons who can’t tell the difference between a 2nd Gen and a 3rd Gen Prius - you’ll be surprised how many people CANNOT tell the difference. The reality is, if 3rd Gen Prii were now a genuine target, we would certainly know about it - have you seen how many of these 3rd Gen Prii are scurrying about on London’s roads alone? Exactly! So, I’d say the Gen 3 is a safe bet. However, for peace of mind, a tilt sensor attached to the alarm, and a 24/7 2 channel dash cam system should be high on your list of priorities - the latter to be fair, should be mandatory on ANY vehicle in the UK these days iPhone 6s +
I get the distinct feeling that IF these low life criminals suddenly started turning up on city squares or better still, obscure locations after anonymous tip offs accompanied by video footage of them wrapped up in strong nets having been suitably disabled with tranquilliser darts first - and more interestingly, even more video footage of them vigorously relieving various Prii of their catalytic converters BEFORE they were mysteriously tranquillised by TranQ Man and Knockout Girl (TM)...........the following events would happen; Our 21st century Police Farce (yes, FARCE...) would spend more time getting suitably VEXED (to the point of getting their knickers in a twist) about these nasty hardened crooks being apprehended in such a manner (that violates their human rights), than they would in any way be gleeful that they’d been caught. The present Mayor of London would rise to the occasion as this news breaks, issuing pardons to the Grand Theft CAT gang (complete with hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling in compensation) and they’d even end up on reality TV as Z-List celebrities! Ultimately, these parasites on our society will end up writing bestselling autobiographies about their nefarious exploits and even have a movie trilogy made, extolling their life of crime. Meanwhile the aggrieved UK Police would turn their meagre to allegedly non existent resources towards tracking down and ensnaring the brazen, dangerous “outlaw vigilantes” who dared to take the law into their own hands and illegally captured the catalytic converter thieves who hitherto had free reign of the country - stealing with unbridled impunity - and with obviously undeniable malice aforethought. In order to quell any future attempts at restoring protection and justice for already put upon, downtrodden, repeatedly robbed (burglarised) Prius owners - by well meaning vigilantes, our glorious law enforcement will identify those online, who wilfully encourage such highly illegal action by nature of their forum postings......and duly arrest and incarcerate them for inciting a breach of the peace, terrorism on a technicality, and violating the human rights of those cheeky rascals from the continent inflicting victimless crime on a few insignificant members of the population who already have insurance so shouldn’t be complaining in the first place (but should put up and shut up). The London Mayor will also get on his wooden soapbox and explain that having hundreds of Prii vandalised by these enterprising untouchable visitors to the UK constitutes “part and parcel of living in London”.....much to the chagrin of well over a thousand victims. Prius Chat will be the first port of call by a Dystopian Police online investigation, and a certain (now conveniently labelled) cyber terrorist by the name of ‘Data (Dare Devil) Daedalus’ will receive a swift early morning ‘crime blitzkrieg’ visit, during which truncheons, fully charged tasers and hungry snappy Alsatians with exceptionally sharp teeth would prominently feature during his vigorous apprehension. His feet literally wouldn’t touch the ground till he is safely locked away in a high security cell from whence he can incite no further harm to THOSE peaceful enterprising citizens of London, going about their tolerated (by law enforcement) self employed work of inflicting (so called victimless) crime on their fellow citizens. Eventually, TranQ Man and Knockout Girl would be apprehended compliments of the UK’s greatest manhunt (person hunt?) ever to date.....and duly paraded on National TV, before being fast tracked in front of ‘The Beak’ (suitably attired in deathly robes suitable for a medieval hanging, and a sallow face so dour, it would instantly curdle fresh milk at twenty paces)....who wouldn’t hesitate to send them down for a prison stretch so long, even their long whitened bones (after their demise in situ, naturally) wouldn’t survive the wholesomely unfair and definitely unrighteous incarceration ordeal. What was that about net and tranquilliser gun laws in the UK? iPhone 6s +
Thank you. I honestly did. It was typed with one finger on an iPhone 6s Plus with a rather large screen size about half the size of my iPad mini 4. I’ve plugged the iPhone in to charge up, and switched to the iPad mini 4 iPad ? Pro
If I tried that on a mobile device, the only smoke would be from my ears. Certainly not from the phone.
Yes in the uk gen 2 orignal exhuast are getting stolen I buy and sell gen 2 prius and had around 5 gey stolen from my sales pitch Now i take all my cats off new cars that come in and replace them with aftermarket ones and sell the orignal ones Codes on orignal exhaust that are worth money are GD3 EA6 so if you own a gen 2 jack your car and check if you see these codes if you do take the exhaust off and sell to scrap man you will get aroubd £400 for it and buy a copy one from ebay for £100 you would rather cash in on them than the scums who will chop them up Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Yes they do also target the Gen 3 Prius (2010 onwards)!!! I have a 2010 Gen 3 Prius TSpirit and I found out the hard way last Thursday afternoon (01/08/2019). Parked my car in the Islington area in London for two hours and returned to find my car started up sounding like a tractor. Looked beneath the motor and found the heat-shield had been ripped open and was dangling down and the Lambda Sensor was cut off too. I’m officially stranded without my beloved Prius! Furthermore, closer inspection revealed that the catylic converter had indeed been cut off and stolen by some foolish miscreant of society!!!
Oh crikey, sorry to hear that. I know what a total pain in the neck it is. And hellishly expensive. Hopefully it's not so bad with the Gen3. And hope even more it doesn't happen again.
Considering buying either a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV or a Lexus IS300h hybrid.... due to being targeted and traumatised by an incident in which my Catalytic converter was stolen from my Gen 3 Prius... Anyone know if they target the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV or a Lexus IS300h hybrid for their catalytic converters in the UK or elsewhere??? Don’t want to be targeted again
do you know if the thieves steal aftermarket ones? I had my OEM one stolen and I just replaced it with an aftermarket one from eBay. I’m wondering if I need to protect it with a Cat Shield of sort? Will the thieves know the difference between a cheap aftermarket vs the OEM one?
Having the shield installed today for piece of mind. Update: Install will not work with Cusco undercarriage suspension bar.
Didn't think I'd be back here posting again. But hey ho, here we go. Two toe rags stole the cat off our Gen3 Prius last night. Caught them on camera, less than 50 seconds, shame they're not applying those skill to pit stops. They're very organised and apparently have been very active across West London (UK) for the last few months. There's now a 6 month wait for Toyota replacement cats, but pretty sure no-one is using those! OEM replacements in very high demand but available. Our local garage has replaced 3 in the last fortnight. They've also said that they tested a couple of different Cat guards, but the thieves ended up doing considerably more damage to the underside of the car trying to remove them. Police have no resources to tackle the problem, though they offered to use ANPR to trace the offenders' car, but in a criminal masterstroke they covered the numberplate so it doesn't work! ️ Oh well, I guess that's the end of owning a Prius. Given the massive economic cost of this for owners and insurance companies, I find it hard to believe there isn't a better solution. 3 cats in 3 years is just too much for us.
I am considering getting the Millercat kit for my 2013 Prius. They offer two levels of screws. The standard level is a set of tamper-proof screws. And they also offer a custom set of screws for an extra $30. Any opinions about this? I've read people suggest to use the standard level of tamper-proof screws but smooth over the heads with J-B Weld. Should I do that instead of the upgraded screws and save $30 (minus the cost of a small tube of J-B Weld)?
After extensive study, I find that the rank amateur will inadvertently cut into the exhaust pre-heater coolant lines. Cars in the UK might not have a pre-heater, but all those sold in the US and Canada will. For the well informed thief, the Gen 3 cat is no harder to steal than those on the Gen 2. One cut with a Sawzall, cutting the oxygen sensor wires and removing two spring loaded bolts is all that is needed. Only the downstream Gen 4 cat is easily accessible and is really not worth the trouble for a thief. The downstream cat contains less precious metals. The upstream cat is part of the exhaust manifold and is difficult and time consuming to remove.
Better than hard to remove JB Weld is plumber's putty, duct seal, or wood putty. All will prevent inserting the correct drive bit. The putty, however can be removed and dug out with a micro sized flat blade screwdriver allowing the owner to remove that shield for service. It is highly unlikely that a thief would take the time to dig out the screw heads, even if he or she had the micro screwdriver.
