Catalytic converter was finally stolen from my 2008 Prius. Stolen during the day parked at a COVID-19 testing site. Must have been COVID non-believers or non-maskers...smh...getting on Ebay after I have a look see tomorrow morning. Any advice or suggestions? And please, I am trying to avoid OEM as much as possible. Thanks.
Welcome to PriusChat!! Sorry for your loss. In which state is the vehicle registered, or will be registered in?
Registered in WA State. We no longer have state emissions requirements. I was thinking of installing a straight pipe but read that there might be a downstream O2 sensor. However, I cant seem to find the downstream O2 connection point on the underside of the Prius.
Greetings... The $120 ones on ebay work well... But you also have to buy an O2 sensor and hopefully the wires it connected to didn't short anything out. I created a thread a while back to answer most people's questions: Prius Cat Theft Tracking | PriusChat Hopefully you can get access to JBLM shops and are able to put your car on a lift. Installing a new Cat is fairly easy and takes an hour if you the lifting the car up in the air part is easy. And you can do it by jacking up the car and crawling under there, but way more work. I'm 20 minutes south of you, so hit me up if you have questions or need more help?
Thanks for the advice PriusCamper. It looks like I'll have to take some stuff off the top of the engine to try and locate the downstream O2 electrical connection to the vehicle. I may have to install the new cat in my garage or driveway, then drive to McChord's Auto Shop if I cannot make the electrical connections without a lift. Will let you know if I run into issues. Thanks!
There's a youtube video on where to access the downstream O2 sensor wires where they plug into the car's wiring harness. You access them by pulling up the carpet on left side in front of the right front passenger seat.
i threw mine up on ebay last night and by this morning it had sold .... and the guy only wants it for scrap (which is a shame ) ..(but does make it easier to ship){
found a video a guy made in cali who bought the whole exhaust (minus the manifold) for $800 .. that was last year .. so u can guage from that ...
Sounds like you sold it as "buy it now" rather than at Auction... You could of got a prius back on the road and made an additional $500 as the auctions on Ebay for cats that aren't clogged are selling in the $1300 range to desperate Prius owners in California who can't afford $3K for brand new as required by law.
yeah but i heard they dont want used stuff and how do u tell when a cat is clogged or not ? yes i wish it was an auction ... i would have rather get a car back in operation than to have it sliced up 'for scrap' ... its def. not going to cali , ny or maine ? ...
just look down in to the guts of it, its obvious if blocked! man you go ripped pretty good, im just looking at the prices on ebay when you click on sold items, geez!
NY and cali have the 'must replace with oem ' so they look for the oem symbols ... but like u said if it's clogged it's not going to pass smog test ... so basically people needing a replacement will need a low mileage unit .. toy retail from delear sounded like $1-$2k + ... so someone is likely going to pay half that .. anyway its sorry situation in those states .. because how much does one diesel truck put out in comparison to 5 or 10 10 yr old cars ? Reminds me of the 'cash for clunkers' oboma program -- not sure who authored that but boma was a promoter .. thousands of perfectly fine vehicles trashed .. so that they couldnt even be used ... perfectly fine .. just big .. heavy .. and not great MPG vehicles .... now we have vehicles with alot of expense for 'safety' (1 time use air bags) --- adding thousands $$ -- the EFI added about 10-25% to mpg ....
Not always. The P0420 sets when the catalysts fails a functional test- specifically how well it can "store" and release oxygen. It can sometimes pass that test while being plugged enough to affect engine power and efficiency (or maybe the test hasn't run in a while). A cat that sets a P0420 might flow exhaust just fine. Or not. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
As @PriusCamper mentioned, the downstream O2 sensor is accessed under the carpet on the passenger side near the 12v port. The upstream A/F sensor connector is buried below and to the right of the PCV. Please report back if using something other than Denso/OEM sensors, and which make/model sensor worked for you.
Went on a trip via airplane (overseas) last August and when we came back, the airport police had a note on the Prius stating to call this number. To make a long story short, our catalytic converter was stolen, perpetrator was apprehended, and we could not get the catalytic converter back as it is being held for evidence. Two weeks later we received our catalytic converter back, I welded it back on to the exhaust pipe, replaced the O2 sensor (wires cut), and replaced the muffler and gaskets while I had it taken apart. A month later, the driver side axle bearing hub was replaced at 643,323 miles for the first time. I did not replace the passenger side axle bearing hub at this time (still the original). I want to see how much longer it last. As of 11/10/2023 the car has 646,000+ miles and counting................................
