Car Thieves Target Catalytic Converters

Hey, Harry Face, are your and my GM convertors worth anything? At a grand each, I may just start culling my 'collection'--how about you? I remember the earlier ones in 75, 76 & 77 we were removing OR 'rendering them inoperative'(gutting them)and giving some away. IIRC the 75-76's did well after surgery; however, beginning in '77, some cars ran poorly afterwards. sdlomi2

Next it will arms, legs, and livers Harry, thanks to battery operated saws-alls.

Porcelain is a precious metal?? I'm pawning my toilet!!

Umm, porcelain isn't a metal, it's a ceramic! The value is in the platinum.

Steve R.

Yeah, a grand each to replace, probably $10 in the junk yard.

That be a stupid junkyard man.... I get $50CA each for defective cats. There's a truck comes around about every six months or so and the guy buys old rads and catalytic converters and such....

Is it illegal in Canada for salvage yards to sell used cat. convertors to individuals? s

Maybe we could all pull together our old Platinum Spark Plugs and help fight aids in africa.

This really stinks, because, not only do they have to replace the cats, but they probably also have to replace the pipes and maybe some of the sensors or wiring going to or in the cats. Not to mention that they may have done other damage under the cars.

Many scrap yards won't take scrap in quantity unless they know the people or get info about the people (like name and address). They are quite well aware that people steel piles of new pipes from construction sites, and other recyclable materials. Hopefully, the people who stole this won't be able to sell them.

Jeff

A little off topic, but reminds me of a situation we had crop up several years ago.

There was a scam that was run in Houston back in the 80's by low-lifes stealing cars (my Fiero was one of them) and shucking out the bucket seats.

They sold the seats to wrecking yards, which held them until the next insurance company case needed them. Those seats, new, cost a couple thousand for the set, and the insurance company would okay a cheaper and more expeditive solution from the wrecking yards.

It was just a big circle. I guess finally the insurance companies wised up and stopped accepting used seats, and to punctuate the sentence, an irate owner or two caught people trying to steal their cars, and shot them dead.

If I caught a guy under my car with a SawZall, I might feel tempted.

It doesn't seem like many insurance claims would require replacement seats. An accident that causes seats to be damaged probably junks the whole car.

Lee

Vandalism?

Take care.

Ken

You're right...seldom were honest bucket seats available at a wrecking yard.

This was a case of create the demand first, and then supply the demand (with the victimss own bucket seats from a wrecking yard)

These were usually rather new cars, with upmarket nice bucket seats. I think we paid about $10,000 for the Fiero in 1984. $2000 wouldnt be enough to total the car out.

And there were no accidents involved, of course. A large number of seat thefts started this thing running.

These guys bilked the insurance companies for a lot of money. If the police and insurance companies had worked together, they could have gotten this stopped a lot sooner than they did.

IF someone goes in and steals your seats, that is a insured loss. Fortunately, they are rare. Which was probably what tipped off the insurance companies.

I remember a few years ago, a kid was about 11. He was in a car crash that required replacement seats. The car he was in ran off the road. It hit a tree and only the bumper was damaged. However, after what my cousin did, his pants, underwear and seat required replacement.

Jeff

I suppose it would be one of the main reasons, although still infrequent.

Lee

I guess even Febreze couldn't have handled that one.

Lee

It wasnt rare when this crime wave was going on... It was happening every night, and lots of cars were stolen.

I had just heard recently that they are valuable for scrap. Rhodium is quite high, but I am not sure about platinum. I don't really have a buyer for them here, but I do get them occasionally on junk cars.

I have heard that the old big ones are worth a lot.