Catalytic converter stolen + 02 sensor. Can I drive it to the muffler shop?

1. Let your fingers do the walking: call the nearby muffler shop, describe the situation, and see what they say about the likely repair cost.
2. Your mechanic is right in saying that the engine performance will be impaired by not having the air/fuel ratio sensor providing feedback to the engine ECU, but if you need to drive 5 more miles that is not the end of the world.
3. Don't take a trip to San Francisco with the car in its current condition, though.

 

“cheaper fix” is going to be difficult in California. In order to pass smog, it needs the real deal Toyota parts, not cheaper substitutes. Insurance is usually the right way to fix this problem.

 

In CA you will need an original part from Toyota to be CARB compliant, you can't put on anything aftermarket. I would also recommend going through your insurance and pay the deductible. Even if you were to find an illegal aftermarket part, it'll still run you close to your $1000 price, maybe only a savings of $300 for catalytic converter and original Denso/Toyota oxygen sensors.

There also is a company that makes an anti theft plate to cover the catalytic converter, I think it's a great deterrent for future thefts

 

Many have the replacement catalytic converter stolen again within a short period of time, the thieves know you will replace it

 

I don't know what shop will install that in SoCal, but it's just basically a metal plate covering the Cat.

Stealing a Cat is a crime of opportunity, that's easy enough to do in 1 minute. With a metal plate covering it, it would make it a challenge, and nobody wants to challenge themselves to steal something worth $300 bucks and possibly get caught for taking too long in the theft job

 

If you live in a high theft area, $350 is nothing for peace of mind to park anywhere you want. I believe this is less than $350, installation seems pretty easy, a small shop that changes oil should be able to slap that on while you get your oil changed (possibly for free)

 

newsweek has a story that a missouri man crushed by toyota prius he was stealing catalytic converter from.

For some reason I am not sad for this man.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that tonight my catalytic converter was just stolen from my Prius while it was in a city of Berkeley owned parking garage. I was only there for an hour and a half, and I had even come back to my car at one point during that time.

State of California does not allow california prius owners to buy $300 aftermarket catalytic converters, or buy them off of wrecked vehicles, and by law junk yards can not sell them to individuals. Instead The State of California decrees we are forced to let ourselves be ripped off by Toyota dealers for the same part ar a cost of $2500.

According to other articles, teams of thieves, often 2 or 3, can steal these parts from under the car in under 5 minutes, and Berkleley has been particularly famous for a recent rash of these thefts.

Of course the parking garage says they are not at all to blaim or responsible. Of course a citizen is not allowed to view footage from the entrance and exit cameras. And despite knowing this problem is rampant, they have not tried to protect each floor with cameras.

This is just one of the many ways California makes crime more expensive for ordinary citizens. Police might call me back at their convenience about this. Now I have to answer every strange, anonymous, and unknown, unrecognized number until I hear from them, if the police decides to call, that is.


Berkeley students were all quite interested to crane their necks to see what all the commotion was coming up the street behind them. Apparently many have never seen a Prius that sounded like a muscle car.

Even people in the parking garage found it quite funny how loud my car is now, and they could see that I was enjoying it. Even more I enjoyed pulling over to tell them that my car was so noisy because ly catalytic converter had just been stolen form my car in thar very same garage where they had parked their car, in fact just one floor away. Their amusement changed to horror that had just missed being victimized.

And having a Prius without a catalytic converter is so loud and unexpected and scary to pedestrians that goosing the accelerator makes a revving up noise that causes students lollygagging across crosswalks to suddenly find the energy to sprint out of the cross walk.

So there are definitely some advantages and amusement to be had. I always kind of wanted to imitate the other tiny cars that have modified exhausts to make huge amounts of noise to get nowhere no faster than I do....

It is too bad it has to be some kind of emergency to fix this. I might not mind driving around like this for a while. What does it matter if it runs too rich now, there is no catalytic converter anymore to clog up....

 

Sorry to hear this man, mine was just stolen in Emeryville on Memorial Day.
Us victims should unite and buy a single OEM cat and share it when we have to get the car smogged. Not legal, but just an idea.

 

I like the idea! Mine was stolen yesterday in front of my house in West San Jose... One guy who is a detective in Santa Clara count told me today that they had about 15 cases in the last two weeks in this area.