Cat astrophy
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 3:39 pm
A few days ago me and the Mrs had a nice run out, top down to a nice little seaside town called Grau du Roi on the edge of the Camargue. Most of the way there & back we were just tootling, but at one stage I had to engage warp drive to get past a member of the 35mph club who had been holding me up for ages. As we blasted past Reginald Mari du taupe the induction noise suddenly increased to an alarming level. I thought it was the cone air filter arrangement that had come adrift, but as the car was running OK and we were not in any real hurry we kept on going. As we neared home, we had to climb up a hill off the Alès ring road and in doing so it was obvious that not only was the car making a lot of noise, but there was no power. Despite that, we managed to get home without incident and I left the car to cool down before doing any investigations.
A quick look into the engine compartment from the boot grille showed that the air intake assembly was still in place, but after I'd run the car up onto the ramps and had a quick look underneath it became evident where the problem lay - shaking the exhaust showed there to be a rattle, localised in the cat. Seems the cheapo after market replacement I bought a few years ago was the source of the problem - the ceramic must have broken up and was partially blocking the exhaust.
The price of an OEM replacement from the usual UK suspects was bloody expensive, over £300 by the time you pay the VAT and carriage, so I decided to look elsewhere. I finally bought one from Germany, type approved, carrying the correct E marks and guaranteed, with a fitting kit. All in and delivered for 88€. Whilst I'm tempted to try and fit it myself, I have a problem these days with vertigo and crawling underneath sets it off. I will take the car to our local garage and ask them to fit it. They're usually very reasonable. They've recently replaced the front flexible section so they've had at least half of it apart already. The duff cat was changed about 6 years ago and the car doesn't do much mileage so the bolts haven't rusted up. They've had a good soak with plus-gas just to be on the safe side.
Moral? Caveat Emptor when you buy cheap. Fingers crossed that the new replacement will be of better quality - it certainly looks it, but that's Germany for you. Emisssions were marginal last MOT so hopefully will be OK this next time.
Happy F ing.
A quick look into the engine compartment from the boot grille showed that the air intake assembly was still in place, but after I'd run the car up onto the ramps and had a quick look underneath it became evident where the problem lay - shaking the exhaust showed there to be a rattle, localised in the cat. Seems the cheapo after market replacement I bought a few years ago was the source of the problem - the ceramic must have broken up and was partially blocking the exhaust.
The price of an OEM replacement from the usual UK suspects was bloody expensive, over £300 by the time you pay the VAT and carriage, so I decided to look elsewhere. I finally bought one from Germany, type approved, carrying the correct E marks and guaranteed, with a fitting kit. All in and delivered for 88€. Whilst I'm tempted to try and fit it myself, I have a problem these days with vertigo and crawling underneath sets it off. I will take the car to our local garage and ask them to fit it. They're usually very reasonable. They've recently replaced the front flexible section so they've had at least half of it apart already. The duff cat was changed about 6 years ago and the car doesn't do much mileage so the bolts haven't rusted up. They've had a good soak with plus-gas just to be on the safe side.
Moral? Caveat Emptor when you buy cheap. Fingers crossed that the new replacement will be of better quality - it certainly looks it, but that's Germany for you. Emisssions were marginal last MOT so hopefully will be OK this next time.
Happy F ing.