So one evening while I was on the way home from work, I heard an unnerving rattling sound coming from somewhere under my truck.

"Okay, I said, I'll get home, park it get under and tighten the muffler clamp." (Which is what I assumed was what it was.)

Well I got home, left the truck running, put it in gear so things were moving to re-create the rattle, put the parking brake on, chocked the wheels to be safe, and get under there. Well, much to my dismay, it was the catalytic converter.

So now here is my dilemma, I dunno if it's the same in the states, but in Ontario, we need to go through an E-test, which is an emissions test. So I will be buying a new cat in the near future, but the ones they sell at service centers aren't guaranteed to pass the e-test! So if I want a sure pass on the e-test, I have to shell out $600ish for the dealer cat.

I guess my question would be, has anyone put a cheaper cat on? Like, the cheaper cat here is $209.99. I'm not even going to consider the $134.99 universal cat. Bleh. The truck is running good now, but the ungodly rattle is embarassing. I'm thinking a baffle broke off in the cat or something, so I hammered at it with a hammer, it's broken already so whatever, to try to pin the broken baffle against something. Any advice?

 

I sure as heck would never get under a vehicle in gear, regardless how restrained it is.

We had the cat in the firebird replaced form rattlin,g, think we just had a generic put in. We don't do E testing at home but where we're trying to move does, so we dunno.

 

a universal cat should be fine. i know i would never pay for an oem cat.

 

I live life dangerously!

Anyways, I'll try going with the universal. The potential money to be saved outweighs the risk of not passing e-test.

 

I agree! Thats just not smart! When I thought my cat went bad (cause it was making the same noise) I crawled under the truck (with it off and firmly planted against the ground) and tapped the cat with a hammer, and it made the rattling noise, so I cut it off and put a piece of straight pipe in its place (we don't have emissions tests on pre-OBDII). Problem solved, no danger involved.

 

Now rather than insulting my intelligence and telling me how you came across the problem and how you fixed it in your application, please give ME some advice. This is my thread. Thanks.

 

umm dont do it, cats are anti-social animals which you will NEVER see around after you get them into the house, get a dog instead



o wait, you meant catalytic converter, OOPS!!!!!

yea any universal bolt in should work fine, here as long as the engine light is off they assume you have a working cat on the truck (at least w/ OBDII), they only use the "sniffer" on older OBDI cars

 

just hop online and find one... shouldn't be too hard

 

heres all the advice youl ever need

 

i have a universal cat... 70$
does the job...i think
(i dont have an after cat o2 sensor so it throws a code on the regular so....idk lol)