Trade in car or just replace stolen cat?

You're in Connecticut with full emissions . You cannot have a check engine light on and/or catalyst code so in your state unlike mine you will have to have a factory converter that will put the light off. That's the end of the game because of your location here where I am I can put in a pipe and block off the converter and the light can be on and I can get inspected because we do not have emissions in the county I live in in North Carolina. So my Prius is safe all of them where you are you will require a very expensive catalytic converter I haven't looked recently but 1500 plus comes to mind and it will bolt in and the water lines will connect up where they're supposed to be and so on and so forth but with what work cost today just them bolting in your catalytic converter and plugging up an O2 sensor and wiring that up to your wiring and connecting the water lines or reconnecting the water lines etc My God that'll probably cost $500 in quotes unless you can find somebody private that can do better I don't think anybody will exchange your car for one that's running just so they can put a catalytic converter on your car and sell it that I don't think that's realistic but then again you never know these days what's possible getting better gas mileage can be costly now maybe the time to cut your ties and buy an old Yaris or even a generation 2 Prius it will serve you much better if you could afford to take a trip down south you could buy a real very decent unrusted. Daily type driver for quite inexpensive $2,000 $2,500. Or even lower 700 or a thousand drop in a used battery and drive a few years generation 3 gets you in some engine troubles and that can get costly and then there's the break actuator and stroke simulator the two pieces generally wind up being replaced together and that's costly.

 

Presume HOA is some sort of rental agreement? Have you tried starting it up? Noisy? Check engine coolant level in the reservoir under the hood? What sort of insurance do you have? If you've got comprehensive (protection against vandalism, theft), and a reasonable deductable, I'd just file a claim.

 

Buy the part and have a muffler shop install it. Could start looking at your local salvage yard, gen3s are plentiful and clogged cats are rare.

 

Get a used cat I don't think you'll have to spend $700 if you look carefully. The front part of the catalytic converter bolts on to the car up there at the manifold long socket and extension can bolt it in once the cat is bolted in that can be as fast as 20 minutes roll the car up on ramps undo and move things around very quickly not much to that 5 6 minutes take the new used cat offer it up to the diamond shape on the back of the manifold add the spring and a nut and do the same on the other side of course the gasket has to be there and now it's in The back section where they cut your muffler shop is going to slip that together and put a seam around it or in a pinch you could put a muffler clamp if you have enough pipe on the cat that you got from salvage or the eBay seller If not you can drive the car with the catalytic converter connected and the cat back exhaust disconnected in the middle of the car this is not a problem You could drive the car around like that for a week You can even drive it around all bait a little slower with the cat completely off the car I drove my generation too for about a week with the cat literally not on the car and just an open header not a good thing but if you're not driving like crazy really it won't hurt anything then I bolted an aftermarket cat up into this particular car drove that around for a day or two while I fooled around with the O2 sensor wiring wired up a Bosch aftermarket O2 sensor got it in and then a few days later I took it over to my muffler shop buddy and he slipped the two pieces together put a seam around it faster than he could lift the car up with the lift and the car's been like that ever since. On the jack stands bolting the new cat in The cat doesn't weigh squat I just held it up with one hand put a bolt without the spring on one side run it up to hold the business so it doesn't fall down on me and then I can swing it over onto the other stud put the spring and the nut on that stud offer up the nut then go back over and take the one I didn't put the spring on put the spring on it put the nut back on this goes very quickly unless they got camera shining in your driveway or something this will go quicker than an oil change now the car's off the ramps you can drive even if you didn't fool with the O2 sensor at this time just wind the wire up and put a zip tie around it so it's not dragging on the ground. You can drive the car like this without pretty much any consequence until you get somebody to seem the cat back exhaust up to the converter No problem.

 

Get a used cat I don't think you'll have to spend $700 if you look carefully. The front part of the catalytic converter bolts on to the car up there at the manifold long socket and extension can bolt it in once the cat is bolted in that can be as fast as 20 minutes roll the car up on ramps undo and move things around very quickly not much to that 5 6 minutes take the new used cat offer it up to the diamond shape on the back of the manifold add the spring and a nut and do the same on the other side of course the gasket has to be there and now it's in The back section where they cut your muffler shop is going to slip that together and put a seam around it or in a pinch you could put a muffler clamp if you have enough pipe on the cat that you got from salvage or the eBay seller If not you can drive the car with the catalytic converter connected and the cat back exhaust disconnected in the middle of the car this is not a problem You could drive the car around like that for a week You can even drive it around all bait a little slower with the cat completely off the car I drove my generation too for about a week with the cat literally not on the car and just an open header not a good thing but if you're not driving like crazy really it won't hurt anything then I bolted an aftermarket cat up into this particular car drove that around for a day or two while I fooled around with the O2 sensor wiring wired up a Bosch aftermarket O2 sensor got it in and then a few days later I took it over to my muffler shop buddy and he slipped the two pieces together put a seam around it faster than he could lift the car up with the lift and the car's been like that ever since. On the jack stands bolting the new cat in The cat doesn't weigh squat I just held it up with one hand put a bolt without the spring on one side run it up to hold the business so it doesn't fall down on me and then I can swing it over onto the other stud put the spring and the nut on that stud offer up the nut then go back over and take the one I didn't put the spring on put the spring on it put the nut back on this goes very quickly unless they got camera shining in your driveway or something this will go quicker than an oil change now the car's off the ramps you can drive even if you didn't fool with the O2 sensor at this time just wind the wire up and put a zip tie around it so it's not dragging on the ground. You can drive the car like this without pretty much any consequence until you get somebody to seem the cat back exhaust up to the converter No problem.

 

Get a used cat I don't think you'll have to spend $700 if you look carefully. The front part of the catalytic converter bolts on to the car up there at the manifold long socket and extension can bolt it in once the cat is bolted in that can be as fast as 20 minutes roll the car up on ramps undo and move things around very quickly not much to that 5 6 minutes take the new used cat offer it up to the diamond shape on the back of the manifold add the spring and a nut and do the same on the other side of course the gasket has to be there and now it's in The back section where they cut your muffler shop is going to slip that together and put a seam around it or in a pinch you could put a muffler clamp if you have enough pipe on the cat that you got from salvage or the eBay seller If not you can drive the car with the catalytic converter connected and the cat back exhaust disconnected in the middle of the car this is not a problem You could drive the car around like that for a week You can even drive it around all bait a little slower with the cat completely off the car I drove my generation too for about a week with the cat literally not on the car and just an open header not a good thing but if you're not driving like crazy really it won't hurt anything then I bolted an aftermarket cat up into this particular car drove that around for a day or two while I fooled around with the O2 sensor wiring wired up a Bosch aftermarket O2 sensor got it in and then a few days later I took it over to my muffler shop buddy and he slipped the two pieces together put a seam around it faster than he could lift the car up with the lift and the car's been like that ever since. On the jack stands bolting the new cat in The cat doesn't weigh squat I just held it up with one hand put a bolt without the spring on one side run it up to hold the business so it doesn't fall down on me and then I can swing it over onto the other stud put the spring and the nut on that stud offer up the nut then go back over and take the one I didn't put the spring on put the spring on it put the nut back on this goes very quickly unless they got camera shining in your driveway or something this will go quicker than an oil change now the car's off the ramps you can drive even if you didn't fool with the O2 sensor at this time just wind the wire up and put a zip tie around it so it's not dragging on the ground. You can drive the car like this without pretty much any consequence until you get somebody to seem the cat back exhaust up to the converter No problem. Yeah you can't do the work in your HOA neighborhood but a private contractor who does that kind of work could probably get away with coming into your neighborhood and doing the work if it was done quickly can't leave the car up on jack stands overnight and all this kind of nonsense so somebody with a franchise with a car wrap on their vehicle pulls up in front of your house and does this to your car I don't think the HOA can really hold you an account for that You called the service business that came to your house and did the work You didn't do it You didn't commit the crime the service business did now unless there's a big sign out in front of the neighborhood that has all these rules posted in another sign saying everybody has to stop and read them I doubt they're going to have any problem but you was the tenant you have to sign to abide by the HOA bylaws the general contractor doing your work not necessarily.

 

Homeowners association HOA it's where young people go to learn how they never ever want to live again or older people go because it's just prescribed in their brain there are insurance commercials with very funny HOA vibes where the HOA lady's going around cutting people's plants down and knocking bushes over and so on and so forth because they don't meet the HOA code. It is a silly way to keep up with the Joneses but a lot of Americans do it early on it was a way to get away from people you didn't want your family around you know like black and brown people and then it became more of a class separation the rich people live in certain HOA neighborhoods and unless you make a certain amount of income so on and so forth you don't even look at those neighborhoods.

 

Homeowners association HOA it's where young people go to learn how they never ever want to live again or older people go because it's just prescribed in their brain there are insurance commercials with very funny HOA vibes where the HOA lady's going around cutting people's plants down and knocking bushes over and so on and so forth because they don't meet the HOA code. It is a silly way to keep up with the Joneses but a lot of Americans do it early on it was a way to get away from people you didn't want your family around you know like black and brown people and then it became more of a class separation the rich people live in certain HOA neighborhoods and unless you make a certain amount of income so on and so forth you don't even look at those neighborhoods.

 

I don’t think HOAs are bad although many get upset when their request for a cheap galvanized roof with exposed fasteners is rejected.

In many locations, HOAs are the only entity empowered to enforce deed restrictions which often mandate minimum house size and no commercial activities. They also mandate no exposed dead vehicles and pay for common area maintenance such as pools and parks.

 

They cut off the entire assembly where sounds to me like they unbolted it and they just pulled it out of the car and the hoses slipped off the little titties or they broke they could be joined together You could start the car roll it up on ramps join the hoses together and put a flanged pipe on the end of the exhaust manifold and run the car like that while you run around town looking for somebody to do whatever I did this to my Prius before. So I guess you really need to slide your phone underneath the car and try to take a picture in the tunnel from the exhaust manifold flange to near the edge of the back seats but under the car usually they unbolt the converter it's faster than actually cutting but I guess it's possible to get under there with the sawzall and just saw the catalyst part off and leave the water heating set up in there but if they did that coolant wouldn't be leaking all over the ground they would just cut in between the piece of pipe from the bulbous piece at the very top near the flange at the manifold and the converters below or something like that I think a lot of guys don't know exactly which part they need so in order not to mess it up they just take the bolts out cut it where the cat back exhaust pipe starts and now they have the whole piece from the water preheater and the cat or two cats whatever's down there they just pull it and run with it so the O2 sensor gets broken the wires and the coolant lines get jerk loose and sit there dripping and running No problem I'm not sure why a c cat couldn't fit. The difference between 1 NZ 2zz exh flanges look same. It's the articulation of the bends. That may get you without having one that you can look at close up that would be a crap shoe but with blown up pictures you should be able to see and be pretty close I would think it would bolt up It would be your water lines and then literally the bend of the assembly like in the middle where the preheater connects to the lower bulbous pieces a smart exhaust tech could heat that up and bend it side to side and up and down a few degrees to make it work if the savings are that great The difference between 1.6 and 1.8 l would probably not be a huge difference in the catalyst system It would be the articulation of the bins and the connection to the water which looks like they would easily be somewhat reroutable. Like I say where I am here I don't have to have any of this I could have a straight pipe up in there but it's nice to have the water preheating so in my car right now my generation 3 if the catalyst was to go bad or get plugged up I would have my exhaust guy cut just below the water preheater thing connect the pipe there and connect it to the cat back exhaust and in my state I would be finished of course I would have a PO420 catalyst below threshold code because well there's no catalyst I would leave the O2 sensor in place and make sure it works initially because you may be able to fool it to get the light out if that was your end game which it wouldn't be for me. And what I was saying if you were to call a private contractor that's mobile automobile repair service unless they stop him at the gate coming into your neighborhood which it sounds like you may not have the gate then they can't really do much to him because he's not you and doesn't live there I don't see where they can harm you or bother you for hiring a contractor to come fix the car in your driveway during business hours in the daytime I really don't see how that would hold up in court unless in the bylaws that you have signed that is particularly called out like that it would be a crap shoot.

 

That one is off a wrecked 2010 hatchback.

Complete view shows bolt on flange at far end. It has an o2 sensor as well.


The hatchback and v have similar dimensions although the v has a revised exhaust heat recirculating system strategy with the heat exchanger around a cat. The c is a different shape and engine.



Since the junkyard cats are as pricey as complete aftermarket assemblies, I would go with aftermarket weld in. But a good price on a salvage assembly might make the bolt in oem worthwhile. Even with full insurance coverage, they will usually require aftermarket in most states including Texas.

From dealer website for gen3 hatch, v and c.

 

Mine was stolen last April and the local dealer showed me a list of something like 75 people on a wait list to get a repair. But to get on a wait list you had to park your car at the dealer. So I sold my car to them and bought a Bolt. In CA you can sell a non-smog compliant car to a dealer but not a 3rd party due to the need to have proper smog check done before a sale.

Good luck.

Mike