Needed: OEM cat c theft deterrent solution; already had 1 stolen

So most of the time, a cat can be stolen in a minute or less. Most of the shields are aluminum. It’s going to take several minutes to cut thru that. If you find a shield made of stainless steel, that’s going to add a few more minutes. Installing a tilt sensor alarm, with the switch mounted inside the car, in addition to the stainless shield is probably your best option. No one option is going to give you 100% converter security.

My employer uses a leased fleet comprised of several hundred 3/4-1 ton vans. Many of the stores have been a combined several hundred times. One store not very far away has been hit 20 times since December. The leasing company ONLY outfits a vehicle after the cat has been stolen, unless they total the van for it, then they WON’T pay for the replacement van to get one. We took delivery of a new van last week, I asked the DM if I should go ahead and get the converter assembly on order for it.

 

Miller has a stainless steel line which also includes ss security bolts (Torx TS27), definitely more work for a thief to get past.

 

Just filling the security Torx heads with putty makes for a time consuming tedious job of cleaning out the heads with a micro flat blade screwdriver.

It took me over 40 minutes, yesterday with the correct tools to remove six screws.

I replaced them with the same M6x1.0 screws with those having security Torx 30 heads and regular M6x1.0 button head socket headed cap screws; three of each.

A thief thinking the Torx screws are TS27 might have a slipping problem with the TS30 screw heads. Also a TS27 bit is too large and will not fit the 3mm hex socket on the regular screws.

I also cut off the heads of the aluminum rivets and epoxied them as decoys as shown in my attached photo.


Of course, they could grind the fasteners off, too. But that too is time consuming to the thief.

 

Get a moped/motorcycle alarm and a 12VDC relay. Make sure the alarm utilizes a key fob to activate & deactivate it, about $15 on amazon or ebay.
The alarm horns are pretty flimsy; so I usually cut them off and wire it to the 12 VDC relay. Use a wire tap to splice into your car horn. Your car horn will be your alarm horn.
Since the only way to get at your cat is to jack up the car; it'll set-off the tremor switch in that motorcycle alarm.
You'll have to arm/disarm on that additional fob; but it's a cheap and fairly quick solution (depending on your electronics skill level). The other option is to spend several hundred on an integrated aftermarket alarm system, that has a built-in tremor switch.

Another cheap option is to have a muffler shop weld the exhaust nuts down; so they can't be easily removed. This will likely piss-off the thief; since they went through the trouble of lifting the car. They will more than likely damage the car, as pay-back - remember your dealing with low-life thieves. They're looking for an easy score.

IMHO: etching the cat doesn't work, see above paragraph. It's illegal to sell used cats in Ca; so if the thieves are melting them down for the precious metals within or selling them to a shady operator - Nobody in this loop is going to care that the cat is etched or painted.

 

I put the stainless steel Miller plate on mines with sealant on security bolts.

Miller Cat Protector | PriusChat

 

Is this a nationwide problem? I haven't heard anything about thefts here in Indiana, but I see members posting from SC, TX, and of course CA.

 

yeah it seems more in the major metro areas in NY, CA, etc. But its also in Europe like UK. They are going after the early gen 2 cars, but some might not check and just try take off the Gen 3 cars (they will get a nice surprise of coolant liquid also) . I just put one on in case some stupid idiots.

 

I’m in SW Indiana and my employer has been hit 5 times. Other local businesses have been tagged too. One guy arrested had 12.5k cash and 130 converters in his possession.

 

It's a problem in Denver too. Pretty sure it's a problem in most major cities. I'm considering installing shields on my vehicles once I have some free time.

 

Women arrested for stealing catalytic converters on I-70 | wthr.com.

Police warn of surge in catalytic converter thefts in Indiana


Catalytic converter theft could soon be a Level 6 felony in Indiana | MyWabashValley.com

 

Wow, that’s crazy. I guess it’s time to start looking for a protector-thingy...

 

If you order from Miller Cat Shields here is 10% off code

PRIUSOFFROAD10

 

Sorry to slightly hijack but I bought a stainless stee Miller cat shield for our ‘21 Prime and a Toyota Dealership told me I void the warranty if I have it installed outside a dealership. Is this total bs or legit?

 

I think that's a whole bunch of bs.. Toyota as far as service goes is always after your wallet. You are not drilling or disturbing any systems during the install. One note is you do need to jack the car up quite a bit as the car is pretty low. You can see my post just few post back on my install. If you don't have access to the tools and and jack, and Toyota charges 1 hour labor then ok for them to put it in.

 

That dealer would be in violation of the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act of 1975, as amended, which would require if the shield need to be installed by the dealer must be free of labor charges. Basically, if's like if they are required to do all oil changes or the warranty be voided, they ,must do it at no cost to the owner.

 

You looking at about this high of jacking the car Mines was slightly lower Just make sure you have jack stand not the jack to hold car up

 

Expensive, but I used Safejacks Rennstands to install mine,



I did get them when they had a Black Friday Special three years, ago for $100 each plus shipping. So, they were $240 delivered from the Pacific Northwest to South Carolina by two day FedEX.

 

Another one in Indiana.