Replacing Catalytic Converter

[Ichiban Rhino]

just found out this morning my Cat is leaking when open up the hood and saw the white smoke came out on the back of the engine. I am wondering how hard is it to replace the Cat and how much it will cost? do i have to replace the O2 sensor, too?

[joseph515]

Its just a bolt on kinda thing so it should be quite easy enough it just might be stubborn depending on how stuck it is. Price depends on where you get it. If you can get the O2 sensor out then you don't necessarily need a new one

[Ichiban Rhino]

Just got a call from the shop, the mechanics said my Cat is California Spes and i would cost me $400 for part. is that ok if i just replace the Cat with Fed Spes instead of California Spes?

[carsrus]

You have an exhaust leak. You probably dont need a cat, its probably the flex pipe.

[Ichiban Rhino]

I refused to pay $525 for the cost of parts and labor, so i took the car back and decide to DYI. Any idea how to check for exhaut leak?

[Brit101]

Look in the Yellow Pages for muffler shops. Call them and ask if they give free estimates. Lots do because the markup is huge. Go to the ones that do and they will show you where the leak is and give you an estimate.

Then go to online places like www.rockauto.com and see what they want for the part.

When your exhaust system is at operating temperature you should be able to remove your O2 sensor.

Harbor Freight sells o2 sensor sockets.

This past fall, one of my vehicles has a leak at a flange joint. Not knowing this I took it to a muffler shop. His quote was $1000. Had it fixed by replacing the flange joint with a flex pipe for $117.00 tax incl. Wished I knew about a vendor of just a replacement flange joint two days later.

If you indeed need a new catalytic converter, you can sell your old one to a scrap buyer of precious metals. They want it for the precious metal inside, believe it is paladium. You will have to make some calls to find the one who will give you a fair price in your area.

[Nark]

Craigslist has few muffler shop that can do really cheap. I got it done for $150 in Long Beach. This is aftermarket but I think he quoted me around $300 for OEM. Let me know if you need his address.
A recent law just passed which prohibit retail vendors to sell and install any cat converter to public. All transaction must be done at state compliance muffler shop. This also meant you're no longer able to buy cat converter online(illegal to ship to CA).
If you want high performance converter, you've to drive to different state then buy/install yourself...or have them install.