I thought the cat was supposed to be expensive?

JustAnotherSaver

That's all i've ever heard. Cat = expense.

Meow meow, har-har & all that

The front pipe on my car snapped today. It had finally rusted through.

The back box & mid silencer are a stainless setup but the front pipe will be that mild steel stuff i guess. I'm pretty sure it never came as part of the system.

It snapped on the part where the front pipe connects in to the mid silencer.

So i just googled & eBayed for the front pipe...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VAUXHALL-ASTRA-G-H-GTC-ZAFIRA-1-8-Estate-Hatchback-2000-2009-Exhaust-Front-Pipe-/182058700993?fits=Model%3AAstra%7CPlat_Gen%3AG&hash=item2a638b50c1:g:~pEAAOSwHxVW7A6x

The picture looks like the pipe - the triangular bit to connect to the bit leading from the engine, the mesh part (that's the cat is it?) next to it & then the pipe running off. The only thing i don't see is the bit for the lambda sensor but i guess it'll be on there somewhere.


£32.87 isn't costly in my view. When everyone talks about the cat being costly i'm expecting if not 3 figures then close to it.

So why would this be so cheap then? I don't want to end up buying in something if it's wrong/bad/half complete etc.

forgotmyname

No that is just the front pipe with a flexi joiner. It is not a CAT.

That pipe is just straight through, no restrictions at all. The CAT is probably between that pipe and the engine manifold.

And yes you can get cheap CATs but they will usually pass this years MOT but not next years. They will have a fraction of the active ingredients compared to a genuine decent brand one.

Not £30 though.

marlot

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

That's all i've ever heard. Cat = expense....
... the mesh part (that's the cat is it?) ... £32.87 isn't costly in my view. When everyone talks about the cat being costly i'm expecting if not 3 figures then close to it.

So why would this be so cheap then? I don't want to end up buying in something if it's wrong/bad/half complete etc.

There isn't a cat in that picture!

interstellaflyer

That's just the down pipe and flexi section, not the catalytic converter, no where in the listing does it say it's a catalytic converter, all it says is front pipe, what made you think it was the cat?

Richard53

marlot wrote: »

There isn't a cat in that picture!

What is the larger section just below the manifold joint? In the absence of any other information, I would have assumed that was a cat (apart from the suspicious price).

arcon5

It's the flexipipe on the pic.
Your cat converter is gonna be part of the exhaust nanifold

arcon5

Cat closer to a ton

Car_54

Richard53 wrote: »

What is the larger section just below the manifold joint? In the absence of any other information, I would have assumed that was a cat (apart from the suspicious price).

That's the flexi section.

interstellaflyer

Richard53 wrote: »

What is the larger section just below the manifold joint? In the absence of any other information, I would have assumed that was a cat (apart from the suspicious price).

A catalytic converter generally looks like a small silencer box and is generally covered by heat shielding, what you see in the picture is the flexible part of the down pipe, there's nothing suspicious about the listing, the item is what it claims to be.

Richard53

Thanks for the explanations. I have never needed to take a cat off, but I have seen so-called 'sports cats' which looked similar to the one in the pic.

AdrianC

This is the cat from a 1.8 Astra G.


Cats used to be way down the exhaust pipe, but as emissions have become stricter, they've moved to nearer the engine - which means they get hot quicker, so start to function much faster.