front cat question...........

Hi all,

The car I recently picked up had what looks like its rear cat stolen as the previous owner said it had an "aftermarket catalytic converter" and I was in such a rush to get a car (needed to drive 600+ miles the next day), I didn't bother to check underneath it and took his word for it. I would deal with the cat afterwards. About 3 days later, I wanted to see what this "aftermarket catalytic converter" looked like only to discover that this "aftermarket catalytic converter" was really a straight pipe welded to the front cat... Not sure at all if the front is OEM or is supposed to be the "aftermarket cat" that he was talking about. Here are two rough pictures of it.





Yes, I was very pissed. No, the previous owner wouldn't own up to it nor answer me about it.

I'm in the process of fixing this issue as I need to get this car titled & registered to me in California (it's an out of state car as well), and need to sell as soon it as I get my VW back on the road (I'm hoping before September).

I'll for sure end up buying a new CARB legal/certified rear cat, but I'm wondering about the front one as like I stated above, I am not sure if it's OEM or aftermarket. The check-engine light is not on, there are no issues as far as I know, and the car is running well. I haven't had to really smog a car in a very long time as my VW is a diesel and all they do is hook an OBD reader to it and it passes, my Mini doesn't need to be, and the Corolla hasn't seen the road for years.

What are the chances the smog tech will check the front one if it's an OEM one or not? Will they actually crawl under, lift, upskirt mirror, etc to check? I am hoping it will be a quick procedure like my VW that I am used to.

Also, in regards to the front cat, it looks like thieves either unbolt it on the front & sawzall off the rear taking it all as one section, or just sawzall the rear, leaving the front. The car might be parked at times in the street about a block away from me for an extended period at times and I'm a bit scared that this brand new shiny cat could get stolen. I'm thinking of when I plan on parking it during those times, to jack it up and bolt that straight pipe back on (I'll just have flanges welded to the pipes), and bolt the cat back on when I am back to using the car - sure it takes time, but I am not losing more money on this. I'm wondering if the thief would scope out the car only to see a straight pipe connected to the front cat would just leave the car alone? If anything, they would just see a straight pipe as that front cat is a bit difficult to see.

Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,

-glenn

 

Thanks everyone.

-glenn