Ok, so if you've been lurking/paying attention to my threads, you would have noticed I'm having troubles with the emissions on my car.

Well, that hasn't changed and the car didn't pass emissions by my citation's deadline of 20 working days so I had to pay the fine of $202 instead of $20 if I got it to pass in time.

Its still in the shop so they can figure out WTF is wrong, I didn't gather all the information today but they are leaning away from EGR and thinking my cats are bad, which is weird since they have only been on the car for maybe 3 months.

I believe they are Walker brand cats, 2.5", brand new when I had them installed.
My shop thinks they offer a warranty and that these might be my problem for my emissions.

IF that turns out to be the reason I failed emissions and get that fixed and pass, could I possibly have a case in trying to get my fine of $202 from the Walker cat/exhaust/whatever company? I have had it inspected at several locations with all work in receipts showing what was done and still failing.

What do you guys think?
I'm not an ******* looking to sue for any reason, but if that was the reason I failed, I don't think I should have paid the fine, just the $20 for having it expired...

 

lol first I'd like to say when I read your thread title I thought you were going to war. secondly, I doubt that the company will reimburse you for the money that DMV is costing you over a failed emissions test. At most I think they would replace your cats if you returned them to the company. This is why I go to local gas stations for inspection.

 

i woud give it a try, you never know nowadays.

 

I used to sell walker cats at my old job. Most of the time after being installed they would throw a code of being ineffiecient. This was mainly on GM W body cars. We usually rufunded money for them. Since then I've always put GM on and never had a problem.

I'm not saying this is your problem, But it is something I've expierenced in the past.

 

is your car stock? no mods whatsoever? i'm talking even tire size..

i doubt they would pay your ticket, simply from the age of the vehicle, they will just say it was improperly serviced or maintained.

I think the emissions inspections are a crock of **** pushed on us by the do gooder/tree hugging politicians, in an attempt to make more easy money from the hard working general public, in the politicians flight to fix the systems they have screwed up over the years, oh and to line their pockets.. i would find a shop that can do the inspection and just pay them to pass you.. i'm sure a shop would accept a monetary cash donation to give you a healthy inspection.

 

I would have taken receipts to the court showing car was still in the shop being fixed, Texas emissions suck

 

What emissions?

 

LOL well its a little diffrent when all you have to do is plug your car in, No putting a tube up your babys ***

 

as much as i hate the state of illinois and its front plates and the city of chicago, etc. i wish that indiana (and texas since this thread is about there too) would adopt the policy illinois adopted last year. any Vehicle 1995 and older is exempt from yearly emissions testing. they did it to save money on dyno testing facilities i'm sure.

 

same situation at my old shop. put GM cats on and see if that don't fix your prob.

 

Since you have long tube headers on it, you (or the emissions tester) may have to beat on the car quite a bit in order to get the cats to light off. Headers don't retain nearly as much heat as cast iron manifolds...

 

This is exactly what my shop told me.

But they're not even sure if thats going to solve it, they haven't ruled out EGR or anything else... but they're thinking thats the main issue.

Brucer:

The car has full exhaust, Pacesetter Long Tubes (WITH emissions AIR/EGR) 2.5" CATTED X-pipe, 2.5" Dynomax bullets.

At this point, I think I'm going to cut my losses, the shop I trust (very much, they've always been good to me) said it would run around a grand to get everything they thought they would need to get it to pass.

But, I'm going to mull it over in my head for a while, you guys can keep helping Thanks everyone!

 

Couldn't you just have the code tuned out, my local shop did it for $60, and I went and passed.

 

This is a OBD 1 car

 

where are the cats??

 

Few inches after the collectors.

 

I also have Pacesetter LTs with AIR/ O2s/ EGR pipe connector and my cats are really close to the collectors. How far back off the end of the collectors are your cats? The AIR injection should help while you're cold/ in open loop to get faster light-off of unspent fuel residues. After that, it doesn't help you at all since it's off. Sounds like you've got a distance to the cats issue or low exhaust temperature for another undetermined reason, or a rich condition, possibly from a faulty temperature sensor somwhere. But by the experience of what others have said with Walker cats, inefficient catalyst is most likely the cause, though not bad enough to throw a code.

You might research alternatives to the GM cats. Be forewarned, $95.00 "hi flow" cats probably won't be what you're looking for. You give up a little HP with OE style ceramic core cats but their temperatures are pretty reliable for light off (down side is some brands aren't padded well and can be brittle inside and fail earlier than you might like due to vibration). Metal core cats are more expensive, and work well for performance applications AS LONG AS you install a pair of decent cells-per-inch count cats. Random Technology makes some good upgrade ceramic cats that are well made and flow very nicely; better than stock by a bit. The average price for the 8000 series part # 183-25000 (Random's best choice for V8 OE replacement where pairs are called for in 2.5") is around $175.00 each. I bought my race cats from ultrarev.com in NJ.

I live in NC and OBD1 cars have to pass visual on emissions components, so I got away with 100 cell per inch race cats (144-30000, 3 inch) but I know they wouldn't cut it in TX at all on Nox and HC, especially with all my other mods. If you're mostly stock aside from your intake and exhaust setup, and it's not a high miles car (>160k) you might look at getting a good quality pair of cats without breaking the bank and getting them as far upstream as feasible.

An additional thought: check the tune. I know enough to be dangerous so I know better than to fiddle with my own, but you might ask Solomon if he has any thoughts on it that might help you. http://www.lt1pcmtuning.com/

 

With the cost of a lawyer and all the phone calls/paper work they would charge you for along with the time/money/research you would need to build your case? Hell no. If you call them and demand your money back guaranteed they will tell you to punch sand.
It would take weeks if not months to prove the catalytic converters are at fault and that is if you and your lawyer could come up with a definitive answer. Think about it for a second... how are you going to go about convincing a court? Words alone won't be enough. You will have to prove they are defective and if your car is modded in ANY way whatsoever that will not help your case at all. By you having long tube headers with no Executive Order number from CARB is enough to get your case thrown out.

If you want to pursue this then you would need to call them back and see if you can get the converters replaced, have them put on your car, have it tested again and see what happens. Again, more money spent to do such things, but that is only the beginning...
Whatever you do from now on will come out of your wallet until you can prove otherwise.

 

Those are universal cats, I really don't think they are your problem...

 

Yeah, I guess thats all true, but even if my car is modded, and I have the receipts for failing, then the receipts for installation of only one part, then a receipt for me passing right after... I would think it would prove that the only part changed (the cats) and it passing from only that would be enough.

But also I wouldn't just sue (IF I ever felt I needed to) for the $202 fine, but for all fees and **** like that, I was just kinda hot-headed with this car's BS and having to pay that fine.

I don't think the placement of the cats is the problem, they're pretty close to the collectors, its literally a 3" to 2.5" flange reducer then a quick 2" long bend and then the cat.

I'm gonna shop around for some GM restriction rape converters, thanks for the info Gojira94!