No Cat results

For the most part the result will be more pollution coming out the tailpipe. It also will not pass any mandated test. There are possibilities for some very minor increase or decrease in performance and a slight chance of damage to the engine.

When I hear that, I suspect it really means either "I have other things I want more." or "I really don't have enough money to own a car and likely don't have insurance." I hope that does not apply here. Never put off any safety related issue. Park the car first.

Rule one. Don't go to the dealer except for warrantee work. Find a good local INDEPENDENT mechanic. Dealers overcharge and chains often try to sell something not needed and often have incompetent or rushed staff.

Once you find a good local mechanic they will be able use a third party cat and get you on your way without paying the price of a new car for the work.

In '97 the US had OBD II already, so the US '97 Jetta should have two oxygen sensors, one upstream of the cat and one downstream of the cat. If the cat is gone, this will be detected by the ECU and it will throw an error code. I guess you are in the UK (?) and it seems you don't have two oxygen sensors, as you didn't mention any error codes. Your car won't get damaged by driving it without the catalytic converter, but you will pollute more and you will not be able to pass the MOT test (or whatever it is called in your part of the word).

You can get after-market catalytic converters. I had my original one replaced with an after market unit several years ago, and it works fine. The car has passed smog test at least once, possibly twice (can't remember), after I got the new one put in. The one I got was only a few hundred dollars, far from OEM pricing!

Oh, and remember that if you are a liberal, you now won't have any say in any environmental issue until you get a new catalytic converter installed.

Mostly true although I'm not sure about the mandated test. My '91 GTI had a completely hollow cat a year after a smog test but I suspect the cat was going for quite some time before I discovered it to be hollow (during a complete exhaust replacement) and I still passed the smog test the year before with no problem. Even so, it's a bit of a gamble.

Your 91 GTI may not have legally required a CAT, therefore it would pass an emissions test easily. Mandatory Cat's did not become law until around about 'K' reg...

Andy

Yes, it's P (suffix) for Pollution and K (pre-fix) for Kat.

BTW, in the UK, if you are a liberal, you haven't had any say in anything for about 70 years, and whatever your political colour we get little say globally anyway when it comes to environmental pollution. Kyoto "agreement", what's that? ;-)

Why make that assumption?? Why are you such an ass??

I do have other things I want more, I have an 18 month old that I need to care for more then my Second vehicle. I already have a reliable Family car. The golf just gets me back and forth to school everyday.

AND, Yes, I have FULL insurance on both my cars, how dare you make a statement like that....F'n nerve!

Steve

Where I live in Newfoundland, Canada, we don't require smog tests or emissions testing.

Steve

My Canadian vers. Golf is an OBDII, 1.8 litre, so only has one oxygen Sensor, on the Manifold which I just replaced. No Error codes...that I know of. And no MOT testing where I live.

I plan on replacing it. Not sure wether or not to go with Stock, Aftermarket or universal. Thanks,

Steve

I got one question, what if i could get a similar Cat, but not designed for the car? It's actually a more of a free flow Cat? Will this work?? I'm really not prepared to pay hundred of dollars for a brand new Cat.

Steve

Please re-read the statement I made. Either I hit close to home, or you did not really read what I worte.

Catalytic converter is safety-related? Let's hear *that* reasoning.

Re-read the message. It does not say catalytic converters are safety related.

Yea, it only reads issues are safety related. You see, Joe likes to suck on VW car fumes every once in a while and those NONCAT car fumes are like smoking a non-filtered cigarette. That would be a real safety related issue for Joe...

:) (Humor sign for the humorless)

Yes. I'm running a TT high-flow cat and it works just fine. About $150 I think it was.

Having had both my parents die due to lung cancer related illnesses I am sensitive to the issue of air pollution and I do consider it a very poor idea to run any car without the proper pollution control devices. I have had about a dozen cancer related operations over the last 30 years myself. At one time I was given only a 10% chance of living 5 years.

However if you try to read the response again, you may be able to figure out that the safety issues I refer to are not related to pollution control, but rather to the general problem of drivers who do not maintain their cars. They tend to take risks by neglecting maintenance and that is what I was referring to.

TMPI (Too much personal information)

Sorry Joe. Next time I won't use my ESP skills to read between the lines and/or your mind and then you won't have to explain yourself.

This is still valid...

:)

Any catalytic converter that has not been hollowed or clogged should work, but if it's not a direct-fit model may require fabrication to install so it doesn't leak (and please don't just get a universal and weld it in place in such a way that, if or when it fails, the exhaust needs to be cut apart; if you go with a universal, you should be able to pick up a flange kit that will allow it to bolt to the factory downpipe, and with a little luck the rear end of the OEM cat is just an outlet pipe that slides either over or under the centerpipe).

Check out (click on "Online Parts Catalog" and then "Catalytic Converters"...damn frames make a direct link too much work) for some options, including both direct-fit and universal replacements.

My grandfather died of lung cancer and he never smoked a day in his life, and lived most of his years in a very rural area, with no noteable air pollution... What caused it? Who knows... but it doesn't mean I'm going to whine about people taking cats off their vehicles.

Catalytic converters stopped having any benefit quite a while ago. Today's engines are so clean that the tailpipe emissions are not much different reguardless of whether or not there is a cat in the system. I know this first hand, as a few years ago we tested a few cars on a tailpipe sniffer that a friend has at his performance shop. The ONLY difference I really saw, was that on one of the cars the pollutant readings were slightly less with the cat removed!

Of course our bureaucratic nitwit friends at the EPA don't use logic and reason, so we still have to have cats. These are the same morons who mandate that you have to have all original pollution equiptment to pass the sniffer test, REGUARDLESS of how much the sniffer detects. It SHOULD be set up so that as long as your car passes the sniff test, it doesn't matter what's under the hood. But that makes too much sense. No liberal is going to listen to good-sense... they never have before.

Personally, I don't feel any guilt in ripping the cat off my vehicles. As a matter of fact, it's usually the first thing I do whenever I have exhasut work done. It's one more thing to go wrong, and it's kind of nice to thumb my nose at the EPA morons.

-Tony

Typical argument of someone who does not understand statistical studies.

Yea sure. That's why the auto makers still use them.

Do you for one second think that if that was really true, that the manufacturers would continue to use them. Get real.

The EPA does not require converters. The EPA describes the results required, not the method of getting them.

It makes sense to me. They know what they are looking for when the system is complete, when it has been changed the measurement system they are using may well be faulty.

I guess you are a compassionated polluter.