Stolen catalytic converter in london uk

Wondering if anyone can make a lambda sensor recommendation? I don't get a warning light when I power up the car, does that mean the sensor might still be present?

I've found Bosch and Walker sensors on ebay for about £50, but my garage recommended an NGK. Any suggestions?

Cheers!

 

I did report the cat buyers on Facebook they were banned but have come back

And further bad news those who thought they were immune to the after market one being pinched it oooks like that’s not the case

 

The issue with the police catching these what will they do even if they are caught the damage has been done the part has been taken off damaged the cables body work etc. It would make sense to have stinger cars maybe electrified exhausts to zap these thieves. I guess it’s seen as victimless due to insurance paying up or people paying from their own pockets. It definetly is not victimless

 

Maybe a cage of some sort but to weld the exhaust to the body won’t work there are rubber mounts to absorb the vibration from the exhaust so rigid fixings would not work i think

 

I thought there'd be a problem doing that.

I am starting to hope mine is written off now. At least I'll get more via an insurance write off than I'd get putting it in for part exchange.

I've just had a new hybrid battery put in as well. It was running like a Swiss clock! I had to drive it out to the transport van when it was taken away. It sounded like a rocket, but the hybrid system still kicked in, so thankfully everyone in a 100 mile radius stopped looking in my direction for a few seconds thanks to the silent running!

This has of course caused the the dreaded 'Triangle of Death' to appear. The engine management light as well. Hopefully that'll all be cleared when (if) they replace it.

 

Yeah, no victims here, move along, move along...

I know what this reminds me of: the BP oil rig spill in the gulf of mexico

 

Hi Muneeb! Welcome to Prius Chat. You are technically correct about not going through insurance for repairs to your Prius.

By the time you’ve paid your insurance excess, you may have well pretty much paid for your repairs, depending on how much your excess is.

Then your insurance premium goes sky high as the final kick in the unmentionables.

However; in my case, insurance was well worth it in my opinion; I’ll explain.

I have business insurance, had paid extra for an enhanced courtesy car, and even had legal aid (the latter probably irrelevant in this case, but I digress). I needed my car for my job and couldn’t rely on daily public transport trips due to my health.

My 2008 Prius Tspirit (a.k.a The Spaceship ) was picked up from my house barely 24 hours after the actual incident, and towed to Borehamwood (from Wembley) for repairs. All arranged by Tesco Insurance (and I only called them that same morning!).

That same day, about two hours after The Spaceship had been towed away, I was contacted again by Tesco Insurance again who advised that the vehicle would be repaired, and I would be called by Enterprise Car Rentals to go in and pickup my courtesy car for use till The Spaceship had been repaired and returned to me. I was warned it could take 2 weeks for repairs to be effected as the parts required were on back order.

I got my courtesy car, a not inconsiderate top of the range 2018 Hyundai i20 1.4 litre 5 door hatchback - and I got the automatic version I’d requested too! It had only 16,000 miles on the clock.

As a result, I was off work for only one day - working from home - logged into the organisation’s computer network (which I’m in charge of).

I had the Hyundai for about 2 weeks. I was very grateful for it, but quickly realised I loved The Spaceship much more.

So, two weeks of car rental, The Spaceship towed for repairs and back to me afterwards, plus 2 weeks storage before it was repaired; and of course the actual repair itself.

For this, I paid my excess of (drumroll....!!!) a hefty-ish £350.....and that was it. Oh, yeah, my Insurance premium went up too! By £100. I still have my no claims bonus intact too!

Overall, it was 2 weeks of a free courtesy car that swung it. Yes, for me, going the Insurance route was absolutely worth it.

I can’t stress how pleased I am with Tesco Insurance, and despite the premium rise, I DID renew with them. Why? They did a brilliant job, and didn’t kick me below the belt in my time of need.

This suited me, but might not be the same for a great many other Prius owners.

I of course, can see why it’d be more logical to have your vehicle fixed without involving insurance, particularly IF they’re gonna jerk you around instead of giving you that vital support when you need it most!
Besides, you don’t want your Prius written off in a manner whereby you end up being cheated.

Muneeb does have a valid point.


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I can see a good business model: the guy who's buying the CAT's could also buy the written-off vehicles, weld the CAT's back in, and there you go. Sorry, too much coffee.

 

‍


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Right, if that's what they're using to cut it out, then you just need to weld a bit of plate to the bottom of the pipe to make the resulting combination larger than the jaw opening of the tool. I'm sure they would still be able to eventually cut through it, but if it now takes 4 or 5 cuts instead of two, the thief is more likely to abort and move on to another car.

Don't forget to install a camera down there to get a good reaction shot

 

A shame we can't connect an electrical shock to the damned things. Not enough to kill the criminal, just enough to render them permanently comatose.

No doubt they'll claim from our insurance and the Police will find time to pursue us!

 

I fantasise about these b’stards stumbling into some drug dealers parking lot, trying to cut out the CAT from underneath one of his minions Prius (in this case used for the dissemination of their mind bending wares to their eager customers....but, I digress).

I’d like to be a fly on the wall when these degenerates suddenly find themselves inexplicably surrounded by steely faced denizens of the drug dealers deep, staring into the barrels of ominously aimed Glocks and 9mm Uzis.

The sight of them being dragged, bloodied battered, browbeaten and pistol whipped into defeated compliance....to the drug lords parlour to face the unsavoury music for disrespecting him by trying to commit Grand Theft CAT from HIS car park will be a sight to behold.

You’d see these grown greasy men crying shamelessly, offering to buy their own miserable lives for 3,000 pieces of tainted silver, but the drug lord and his blood lusting minions will be having none of it. Oh, they’ll take the money and laugh in their faces.

Retribution will be slow and particularly painful. Hammers. Fingernails. Pliers. Teeth. Toenails. Salt. Knuckle dusters. Wooden Baseball bats. I’ll let your fevered imaginations put the aforementioned items and how they’ll be interacting, together.
Their final moments would literally suck.

Ultimately, the word “Wasted” would feature rather prominently in these “stoopid” CAT thieves.....um......nonexistent futures.

The bodies won’t be found for a few decades if ever of course. El Drugo will make sure of that. Nobody decent will miss these scum of the earth RATS in the UK. They’ll be victims of their own misfortune.....death by maligned misadventure.

And El Drugo and his armed minions will get off scot free because as we all know, the Police haven’t got any resources to investigate victimless crimes.
They couldn’t find these Grand Theft CAT jackasses any way - so realistically, they never existed.

No evidence, no complaints, NO VISIBLE VICTIMS......case closed!






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If you're not already, you be be a writer Data Daedalus.
That is great!

 

He's apparently hammering this all out on a phone...

 

hello

Presume they went to toyota to get it sorted since it was insurance covered? There have been some people reporting their cars have been written off as Toyota want £1500-2000 maybe more depending on the damage done.

I guess it would depend on the age condition etc for them to write off vs spending £2000 on the car

 

I agree on this beautifully written

 

In this day and age of austerity, faced with the prospect of having your Prius written off by insurance just because you took your CAT damaged vehicle to Toyota - seems like a bad move. You can make enquiries with Toyota, but it turns out you don’t have to take your 2nd Gen Prius to them for this kind of damage. The stealership will happily relieve you of about £1,800 to £2,000 for your troubles, and only THEY will be smiling all the way to the Bank ‍.

I went with my insurance primarily because I thought I was looking at an approximate £2,000 bill for another catalytic converter. I also thought “The Spaceship” HAD TO HAVE the original OEM part installed in order for it to function properly.

This turned out not to be true. A Klarius Catalytic Converter is doing the job just as well in my almost 11 year old 2008 Prius Tspirit.
Fortunately, in the UK, we do not yet have Stringent Smog Legislation like California, where it is mandatory that all SULEZ vehicles must have an OEM catalytic converter installed at the time of replacement. Thank goodness for our sakes here in the UK.

Indeed, as of yesterday afternoon, I was back up to 59.8mpg on the MFD (and I haven’t even bumped up the tyre pressures since the vehicle was serviced at Toyota and they doubtlessly reduced it back to Toyota service standards - as they always do).

I really did think my insurance would have installed an OEM CAT back there, but.....wisely, they did not! That’s kept costs low all around, and ensured that my vehicle was actually repairable. I used insurance because I couldn’t afford time off at work, spending days running around trying to resolve this unfortunate incident.

If I’d had free use of another car, I’d have probably tried to resolve this privately without insurance involvement. However, having a hire car was instrumental in selecting the insurance route - it was my backup plan for such an emergency - and for me, cost wise, it ultimately worked. Two weeks of free rental vehicle was worth it.

Still, even my pocket acknowledges that this wasn’t a victimless crime. I’m out of pocket for the insurance excess, extra custom built security on my CAT system to prevent a reoccurrence theft;
(You just know some slow witted copycat dullard will try it again - they’d have cut it off before they realise it is a cheap Klarius with a primarily ceramic matrix core plated with Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium.....by then however, the damage would have been done).

Then there’s the cost of further security; a Thinkware F800 Pro 2 channel dash cam system; hardwired in and naturally, installed professionally. This even includes a Cellink Neo6 auxiliary battery unit designed to provide approximately 36 hours of time-lapse recording on both front and rear cameras while the vehicle is PARKED and unattended.
This has left my pocket bleeding profusely, but hey - that’s how paranoid I am right now!

Then there’s the feelings of acute paranoia whenever you park your Prius in a shopping centre car park. I now park, “case the joint” for suspicious vehicles parked nearby with members of the “Grand Theft CAT” crime syndicate waiting to pounce. The Spaceship is protected, but I’m still paranoid! Hell, I even started watching out for who is discreetly following me on my commute home every day, just in case they’re secretly tracking The Spaceship so they can comeback and hopefully harvest the CAT later.
I once spotted a black VW Passat tailing me on the way home, and initiated “defence procedures”, aborting my trip home and heading down random streets - they followed for a while till I lost them at traffic lights and then went to warp..... Who needs that level of paranoia because you drive an iconic Prius? ‍

Any 1st or 2nd generation Prius owner who suffers Grand Theft CAT should seek out a garage who can do a low cost repair (under £500?) if they can afford the time. Am I the only one who thinks 1st Gen Prii should already be awarded Classic Car status?
On that basis alone, insurance should repair them - not write them off.

It seems an awful shame to have such wonderful well built amazing vehicles CUT down in their prime by opportunist criminals from which our local law enforcement constabularies have now simply refused to protect us.

Thanks to these evil minded scum of the earth, I’m now more paranoid than the infamous and paradoxically fictitious Fox Mulder of the X-Files......and I actually DO believe in UFOs......

These degenerates are out to ripoff every 1st and 2nd generation Prius by stealing it’s OEM CAT, causing horrendous problems, both physical, logistical and dare I say it, mental. That noise when you start your vehicle and the CAT is gone.... Heart breaking. A guaranteed near coronary when that happens!

Your ultra dependable ride, disabled NOT by an unexpected HSD propulsion system malfunction, but by a despicable human RAT.
You cannot drive to work, drop off or pickup the kids from school, or otherwise go about your entirely legitimate business that pays the bills and pays the taxes the government eagerly slurp from every paycheque - some of which supposedly goes to law enforcement to protect you!

Victimless crime?



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I had my cat stolen the day before going away on an extended holiday. I called my insurance company (LV) and they collected my car for repair. I made a report to the police within 15 minutes of the crime. I gave them the registration number and make of the car containing the crooks. CCTV images recorded and kept by the supermarket where the cat was stolen. Next day I got a call from the police to repeat what happened again, so I duly have them all the info again. 5 weeks later I get an email from the police asking me what was stolen from the car and do I have any CCTV images! My insurance company had assumed that the police would follow up with the car registration and then they could refund my £300 excess from the crooks insurance policy. This seems pretty unlikely now. Amazing . The cat problem has been reported by the BBC, the Independant and probably others but the police take 5 weeks to start investigations!

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What does it take...

 

If they are happy to steal multiple cats is not totally unlikely that they could steal the hydraulic snipper

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