carleldon

I have a 2002 Trans Am that doesn't have cats, and the registration has been out of date since August of 2016. I'm really not trying to wait til I get pulled over and fined, so if anyone could help me out I'd appreciate it. I was considering going to get it tuned since it is showing a service engine light due to having no cats, but I don't even know if that will be enough for me to pass. I know it's a little shady, but I'm stuck and can't find any answers. Feel free to PM me if need be.

I had the same issue in El Paso previously, but it just comes down to who you know it seems. As of right now, I don't know anyone. I just need a point in the right direction. Thank you.

JC316

iTrader: (1)

You're pretty much SOL. Best bet is to get some high flow cats and weld them in. Will be cheaper than a tune and get you street legal.

codyvette

iTrader: (24)

I have an idea, post up for the world to see you have an illegal car! C'Mon man, nobody is going to post here about it. That is, unless they aren't real bright themselves.

JC316

iTrader: (1)

It's just not worth it to run catless IMO. Makes the car too loud, too smelly, and too much risk of a very large ticket. You can get tiny high flow cats that are just enough to make it legal.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

Aftermarket cats are nothing but a waste of money, go OEM or don't do it at all.

We have cars come in all the time with converter failures when the cats are only a few months old, we refuse to sell them anymore after having nothing but come backs with muffler shop weld in converters. My wife's car is on it's second set of BBK cats (catted x pipe) and both sets lasted 6 months. I had a customer that wanted to try a magnaflow cat and it also lasted 6 months. OEM or nothing.

Yes a tune will be enough, no idea what happened to this board that people are afraid to tell you that you can pass with the cats tuned out. All you need is someone that doesn't look under the car, and hell you could hollow out some cats and get them tuned out and pass the machine and the visual.

If you need more help write here or PM me.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

Cheapest weld in cats I know of would run about $400 installed. You can find a cat tune out cheaper than that all day.

Almost every member of this board has something illegal about their car, egr delete, air delete, slicks, clear corners, long tubes you name it and for years we've given each other advise on these things....

LOL what happened to this board??? Too stinky? Too loud? Risk of a ticket?

carleldon

I couldn't think of any other way without posting it like it was, I know how dumb it is. That's why I suggested Pm'ing me lol

carleldon

I appreciate it, I ended up getting it figured out after all. Only took 5 months to do so

carleldon

I figured so, but I ended up getting it figured out. Thanks for the advice though

codyvette

iTrader: (24)

WUT U TALKIN BOUT WILLIS?

JC316

iTrader: (1)

Bullshit, I ran universal cats on my cobra for a year, never had an issue with it.

You can get two universal cats from summit for $120, no way does it cost $280 to get them welded in. If you **** off the wrong cop you can get one hell of a ticket.

Blue2001TA

So what did you end up doing?
I'm thinking of doing the TSP catted y-pipe,
Would that make me pass with TSP LT?
Wondering cause I might be moving to Houston.

PM me if needed.
Thanks

JC316

iTrader: (1)

He probably got a tune or found a friendly shop. Catted Y pipe with LT headers wont be an issue.

Spartan7

iTrader: (7)

Um, wut? My high flow cats passed the sniffer in CA (LA county). You can't even get OEM cats for most older cars anymore, and the only legal ones in that state for replacement are Magnaflow (just went through this with my Dad's 95 Suburban).

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

I understand you can't get them OEM for some cars, if you can and you want them to last OEM is the best option.

You guys have had a different experience than I have, that's cool it worked for y'all, all I can go buy is 19 years experience being a tech seeing this all day every day at several shops and hearing the same from tech friends at their shops. I've worked at shops that did exhaust and converters, and the rest of the years I've worked in shops we sent cars to exhaust shops and had converters welded in, at each and every single shop we had to stop using aftermarket because of the astronomical failure rate.

I gave this info to a friend with an altima and they chose a magnaflow because it should be high quality and it was priced between cheapo and OEM. It lasted 6 months with no other contributor on the car to the cats failure, excellent condition vehicle with meticulous maintenance around 100k miles.

Wife's GT BBK set went bad 6 or so months after buying her car, then we replaced them and they failed again shortly after.




You're right, i'm lying. Your one experience trumps my years of experiences repairing multiple cars all day every day.

If you're so worried about tickets and noises and loud things and smells you should probably get a camry or something dude. The OP obviously isn't so I gave him advice in the direction he is heading.

codyvette

iTrader: (24)

I must say, I definitely understand where 00' is coming from. There are many things that factor in when you talk about cats that will work and cats that won't. You can put ten cats in a row on a **** tuned car and they won't work. To put it simply, do some damn research and you can find out what works and what doesn't. I don't mean read about someone saying "bullshit it worked for me" or someone else saying "you don't know **** I've got a million years experience". I mean research how the car's equipment actually works. You will be surprised at how many "effective" options are out there.

JC316

iTrader: (1)

It's not smart to assume about people, cause I also have years of experience repairing cars. Don't give me the macho crap and how I should be driving a camry. A set of high flows might kill 5HP and a few decibels. That isn't worth the risk of a $2500-$10,000 fine to me.

I get it as well. If you're an idiot about it, not much is going to help. Poor tune, wrong cat, not running right and it dies a horrible death.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

So it was smart to call "bullshit" on my information because it worked on your car? There was no macho ****, this is a car forum where almost every user is here for performance reasons and understands there are trade offs, so for you to state it's too stinky, too loud, too risky leads me to think you shouldn't have a modified high performance car if you dislike so many of their typical traits. Hence the camry comment. If you have years of experience, you should have seen some aftermarket/low cost cats fail as well. I don't know everything just because of my experience, but I see a lot of things that people who don't do this for a living don't get the opportunity to see.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

All the cats I am referring to were on stock cars with factory tuning, they were otherwise mechanically sound and the best example to be used for how long a cat would last. A higher powered car tuned etc would likely have a failure sooner.

JC316

iTrader: (1)

Yes, it's bullshit and no it's not just on my personal car. Of course I've seen aftermarket cats fail, just like I've seen stock ones fail. You're acting like every high flow cat is going to die in 6 months and you're dead wrong.

Yes it is macho bullshit because the high flows don't kill that much power, it's negligible. You're no different from the idiots that run stacks on a diesel and tune it to roll coal, or the ricers with the fart cannon. It's not a power thing, it's an image thing. I can and do have just as much power as running catless and still maintain legality.


As for the smell, I don't like getting out of my car smelling like exhaust, but that is just personal opinion.