Have to replace cats. Does this quote sound high?
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Teching In
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Have to replace cats. Does this quote sound high? Hey everyone. I've got a 2002 TA with almost 69k miles. The other morning my check engine light came on so I took it to a mechanic. They got back to me saying it's the catalytic converters. They said one cat would be like $640, the other would be $460, and labor would be around $240. My buddies are telling me those prices are absurd and I can get this taken care of for a lot less. I don't know a lot about cars so I wanted to see what all of you thought. Thanks for your time.
Frog where are you located? Ihave a pair of stock cats that are good that were about to go to the junk yard.
Might just be a bad front or rear O2 sensor instead of the cat. O2 sensors. O2 are $50 to $75 each. The car has four of them.
That quote is about what my xwife paided to have the cats replaced in her 2002 Z28.
I think the labor quote is high. Probably quoted high in case issues occur and would be a little less if no issues occured.
Try Repairpal for a rough estimate in your area.
http://http://repairpal.com/estimator
Labor: $66 - $85
Parts: $498 - $1227
Estimate does not include taxes and fees.
Included Parts
Catalytic converter
2 catalytic converter gaskets
Might just be a bad front or rear O2 sensor instead of the cat. O2 sensors. O2 are $50 to $75 each. The car has four of them.
That quote is about what my xwife paided to have the cats replaced in her 2002 Z28.
I think the labor quote is high. Probably quoted high in case issues occur and would be a little less if no issues occured.
Try Repairpal for a rough estimate in your area.
http://http://repairpal.com/estimator
Labor: $66 - $85
Parts: $498 - $1227
Estimate does not include taxes and fees.
Included Parts
Catalytic converter
2 catalytic converter gaskets
Last edited by 99 Black Bird T/A; Mar 3, 2017 at 09:03 PM.
Thread Starter
Teching In
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I live in Texas in the DFW metroplex. I was just talking to a guy I know who used to be a GM mechanic and he was saying I could probably just get some universal cats for a lot less and have a muffler shop install them (I saw some universal Magnaflows for under $100 and a direct fit Walker for about $140). Any reason that would be a bad idea? I'm mostly hesitant to pull the trigger on that quote because I just had them diagnose and repair another check engine light issue a week ago. Definitely going to try the O2 sensor first though.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 6,216
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From: Wichita KS / Rancho San Diego
Using the universals will necessitate having the exhaust shop do some fabbing to get them to fit. If you are going to do all that, the best thing would be to have a set of long tube headers installed with a catted Y. You'd get a huge bump in performance and still come in cheaper than stock cat replacement. The Walkers sound like the least expensive fix.
Random Tech offers hi-flow cats with their own Y pipe, which is a nice setup if you're not going with headers, but fairly expensive.
No way you want to pay that kind of money to replace the stock cats.
Random Tech offers hi-flow cats with their own Y pipe, which is a nice setup if you're not going with headers, but fairly expensive.
No way you want to pay that kind of money to replace the stock cats.
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Another option would be direct fit cats from Magnaflow, since you aren't in California you can run the cheaper federal cats.
Here are the P/N's from Magnaflow along with the prices I found on Amazon
Part # 23477 Left/Standard/Direct-Fit $192.87
Part # 23489 Right/Standard/Direct-Fit $273.31
Still a lot of money but cheaper than OEM or the CARB compliant ones.
Or just go with direct fit cats from another brand, you don't have to worry about CARB compliant cats so you have a lot of options.
Here are the P/N's from Magnaflow along with the prices I found on Amazon
Part # 23477 Left/Standard/Direct-Fit $192.87
Part # 23489 Right/Standard/Direct-Fit $273.31
Still a lot of money but cheaper than OEM or the CARB compliant ones.
Or just go with direct fit cats from another brand, you don't have to worry about CARB compliant cats so you have a lot of options.
Last edited by 4150; Mar 7, 2017 at 04:49 PM.
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I live in Texas in the DFW metroplex. I was just talking to a guy I know who used to be a GM mechanic and he was saying I could probably just get some universal cats for a lot less and have a muffler shop install them (I saw some universal Magnaflows for under $100 and a direct fit Walker for about $140). Any reason that would be a bad idea? I'm mostly hesitant to pull the trigger on that quote because I just had them diagnose and repair another check engine light issue a week ago. Definitely going to try the O2 sensor first though.
That expensive quote is for bolt in replacements. no need for that.
We do the universals at muffler shop all the time at work, instead of bolt in replacements
I'm in DFW as well, no problems with doing it that way here.
I live in Texas in the DFW metroplex. I was just talking to a guy I know who used to be a GM mechanic and he was saying I could probably just get some universal cats for a lot less and have a muffler shop install them (I saw some universal Magnaflows for under $100 and a direct fit Walker for about $140). Any reason that would be a bad idea? I'm mostly hesitant to pull the trigger on that quote because I just had them diagnose and repair another check engine light issue a week ago. Definitely going to try the O2 sensor first though.
Sending PM
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Teching In
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I just saw all these replies. My bad! Life's been crazy. I'll try to knock these out without a mess of quote text.
@garys 68: I do have a slight misfire right now. Pulled the plugs and they're toasted. That's high on the list considering the awful mpg I'm getting - I'm at about a half tank right now with just over 100 miles on the trip meter. Could that have been what blew my cats?
@RevGTO/hurley711: Haha I don't even know what that means. I'm an absolute layman just trying to make his car quit its shenanigans without going broke, but always open to ideas. Have a lot to learn.
@bad_408_vert: I can try calling the initial mechanic to see if they know. When I got the car out of there, my light was off, so AutoZone couldn't find any active codes. I guess I just have to drive a certain amount for it to come back on.
@slogo: Is there any downside to not going direct fit? Does the labor of welding and all that typically negate the savings on parts or make it impossible to bolt stuff on later down the road? If I'm making no sense feel free to tell me
@99 Black Bird T/A: Thanks! Just got back to you.
Thanks for all of your time, everyone. My pre-purchase inspection definitely missed a lot, and you have all been great on helping me navigate this and other issues. I'm so naive I didn't even realize I wound up with a fake WS6 til last week, if that gives you any idea. Thanks again.
@garys 68: I do have a slight misfire right now. Pulled the plugs and they're toasted. That's high on the list considering the awful mpg I'm getting - I'm at about a half tank right now with just over 100 miles on the trip meter. Could that have been what blew my cats?
@RevGTO/hurley711: Haha I don't even know what that means. I'm an absolute layman just trying to make his car quit its shenanigans without going broke, but always open to ideas. Have a lot to learn.
@bad_408_vert: I can try calling the initial mechanic to see if they know. When I got the car out of there, my light was off, so AutoZone couldn't find any active codes. I guess I just have to drive a certain amount for it to come back on.
@slogo: Is there any downside to not going direct fit? Does the labor of welding and all that typically negate the savings on parts or make it impossible to bolt stuff on later down the road? If I'm making no sense feel free to tell me
@99 Black Bird T/A: Thanks! Just got back to you.
Thanks for all of your time, everyone. My pre-purchase inspection definitely missed a lot, and you have all been great on helping me navigate this and other issues. I'm so naive I didn't even realize I wound up with a fake WS6 til last week, if that gives you any idea. Thanks again.
I just saw all these replies. My bad! Life's been crazy. I'll try to knock these out without a mess of quote text.
@garys 68: I do have a slight misfire right now. Pulled the plugs and they're toasted. That's high on the list considering the awful mpg I'm getting - I'm at about a half tank right now with just over 100 miles on the trip meter. Could that have been what blew my cats?
@garys 68: I do have a slight misfire right now. Pulled the plugs and they're toasted. That's high on the list considering the awful mpg I'm getting - I'm at about a half tank right now with just over 100 miles on the trip meter. Could that have been what blew my cats?
I bought my car in 09 with a code thrown knowing the cats still had to be replaced. Took it to a Pontiac dealer that was about to close but the cats were warrantied for so many years by the federal govt. Pontiac dealer was billing GM so even though only one cat had to be replaced they gave me two new ones. The price you were quoted looked about right but I say just do LTs and a catted-y for cheaper.