I know the aftermarket cat is virtually worthless, but if a thief doesn't realize that and steals my cat that's a huge problem for my daily business and a big expense to replace. Are people having these get stolen? Do I need to protect it with a car shield?
Aftermarket cats are like $120 and takes my guy about 18 minutes to put in the car I usually let him weld the back section in not clamp it so not a huge problem but I guess for some people this could be a big to do. Here in North Carolina I don't hear much about these cats getting stolen anymore factory original or aftermarket smart people that are committing crimes are not stealing aftermarket cats that cost $120 unless they're new to the game and completely ignorant which by today's standards of people there should be a few hopefully and far between.
Right, but if I drive out of town, check out of my hotel in the morning, and find my cat is ripped out, that is not a $120 problem anymore. Technically it's sort of drivable, but long distances would be ill-advised. If this is a risk, installing a cat shield is worth it. The risk is whether thieves will know if it's basically worthless and not bother stealing it. They may not be that smart. Or maybe they know their business and they would all walk away without cutting a anything. I don't know what they do, this seemed like a good place to ask
Can't speak, of course, for the US but I'm lucky to have a Hybrid specialist service station not far from me and when I asked about this he said he has replaced many cats with reps and not one has ever been stolen and it's a waste of money having a shield. In the end, only you can decide but a shield is not an absolute guarantee anyway. It will only put them off if they need to do it very quickly.
People having their cheap aftermarket cats stolen by really dumb thieves has been well documented on here and especially problematic in major cities. There's even been several posts on here who gave up their Prius after the third theft. So yes, a cat shield is an essential deterrent even though it can't entirely prevent the theft.
OK so maybe I wasn't crazy putting the shield over the existing aftermarket cat. My car's inspection is way out of date- like a year- because it's throwing P0402, so it won't pass inspection. P0402 is usually bad cat, and there's no other codes indicating anything else. This is probably a 4-5 yr old aftermarket cat and the engine had a lot of excess oil consumption for most of those years until I carb soaked the pistons. Just got pulled over and got a warning (second, actually) over the expired inspection/registration sticker. I think they LIKE when you don't get it taken care of, because then they can pull you over and check for outstanding warrants or whatever, whenever they like. I tried some in-the-tank cat cleaners, even Scotty Kilmer's lacquer thinner "trick". Also ran intake cleaner through it, intake needed that. Didn't make 0402 go away. It's the name-brand Cat Shield, it screws into existing holes in the frame with one-way stainless screws and rivets. I could grind the heads off, given enough time, but then the holes would probably not be clear to reinstall the shield. I recall those screws were pretty hard to get in, they're not going to come out easily. I'd have to either discard the shield or drill new holes in the frame for it, if I can't extract those screws. I'm in a big city and it does sound like a credible threat that someone's going to steal the worthless aftermarket cat by mistake and really mess with my life for a few days. So putting protection back on it still sounds necessary. Any ideas?
Checking some precious metal price histories, it looks like today's rhodium prices are down about 85%, and palladium prices down 60%, since their peaks a couple years ago. Combined with some busts of major cat theft rings and buyers since then, it seems that thefts here had dropped sharply, then fell out of the news completely.
Huh. Just checked Nextdoor and the latest report of a stolen Prius cat is from Jan. You seem to be right!
i had a cat shield and they cut through the exhaust pipe anyways and left my resonator hanging down underneath, then they apparently gave up and ran off before they got the cat. there was a major cat theft ring in this metro area that was shut down a year or two ago and it seems to have died down a bit around here.
Have you already replaced that aftermarket cat? If not, go to Youtube and search for O2 spacer for Prius. if you've already installed another $100 aftermarket CAT, a shield is not worth the extra expense. Sure there are idiotic thieves who might steal an aftermarket version, but I'd say the risk is pretty low.
That's what I used to do on my road trips to California... If you get stuck in that state without a catalytic converter you won't be able to have a cheap aftermarket one shipped there.
