Unofficialbmw.com

[PJK]

Hi Joe,

These are aftermarket cats so we aren't exactly comparing like items. The smog guy says they come from a reputabile manafacturer and carry a 7 year warrenty. He told me the name but I didn't recognise it.

The BMW cat (and the ones from Pelicon and that other place) are assemblies which consist of two cats, two resonators, and the pipeing from the exhaust manifold to the muffler assembly.

The aftermarket cats are just the individual cats so two are required. They are about $250 each. The old cat is cut out of the assembly and the replacement cats are welded into the place of the old ones.

The total cost including the test and diagnoses and the final smog test and report and tax is going to be ~ $750.

My car is in the smog shop now and the cats are on order. It should be done tomarrow. As you might expect I will be inspecting the workmanship when I get the car back. Our camera is out for repairs now but I'll take pictures and post them when I get the camera back.

After he tested the car he told me that what was coming of the cats was worse than what was going into them.

I am guessing that what killed the cats or at least mortally wounded them was an event a few months before my last smog test. I had just filled up with fuel when I started the engine there was an explosion and the engine was running very poorly and would not idle. I did manage to drive it home but I had to keep it abouv 2000 RPM. It took a mounth of weekends to find the problem. The fitting for the ICV hose blew of the bottom of the intake manifold. I recovered all the pieces and with some J&B weld all seemed to be well again. It took three tries at the last smog test to just pass. The test only place warned that I probably would not pass the next time. It turned out they were right.

This afternoon I called Niello BMW in Sacramento CA to ask the price of the cat. They would have to order it and the price is $2630.20 with a $50 core deposit. Out the door with taxes $2914.72

The smog shop so far is looking like a good deal. I hope I still think so after I drive the car and inspect the welds.

If all looks well I'll post the name and address of the shop. ~ 40 miles to drive seems like a deal for mif_slim to save about $2200. Actually the difference is more than that as Niello is not installing the part, testing, and sending the certificate at their price.

Phil

[walshja]

How did you find this mechanic? There has to be someone like him local to me, right? 7 year warranty is great.

I gotta do something with my wifes car, and soon !!!

My fingers are crossed this solves your problem !!
_________________
joe

1994 325iC, 195k miles
http://home.comcast.net/~walshja/index.html <--- check it out

[PJK]

Hi Joe,

The frame shop where I had my last alignment does some gereral auto repair so I called them. They do not do smog diagnoses and repair so they recomended this place.

I just called and found that the cats are on the UPS truck so my car should be done by end of day today.

I will find out about the brand of the cats and when I get the car home I'll put it on the lift to look at the welds. If it looks good I'll post the name, address and phone number of the shop.

Phil

[PJK]

Good news and bad news.

The bad news is the the cats did not arrive so I still don't have my car back.

The good news is the reason the cats did not arrive. Aparantly the company who makes them, Miller Catalyzer Corporation, stopped the shipment. The OEM assembly in my car has two discrete cats. Up untill now the replacement from Miller was two discrete cats @ $250 each. Miller just got a double cat (two inlets and two outlets) approved by the state of California for my car. They stopped the shipment of the old parts and are overnighting the new double cat. The new part is $280 and only one is required. This will save me $220.

I will sure rest better when the part is on my car and the certificate is sent to the CA Air Recorces Board.

Phil

[PJK]

The new simese twin cat arrived today. I went to see it and refresh my memory of the old configuration. They had the car on a lift so I shot a picture of the underside showing the old cats. They had a few hours of work to cut out one of the Ys and fabricate the new pipe to go from the remaining Y to the new cat.

Late in the afternoon they called and told me that the installastion was done and they were about to put the car on the dyno.

When I arrived they informed me that my car will be allowed to live.

The HC at 15 mph was 29 PPM (86 PPM allowed) the old result was 222 PPM.

The CO % was 0.01 (0.05 allowed) the old was 0.53

The NO was 0 (697 PPM allowed) the old was 948 PPM.

Needless to say I am overjoyed that I get to keep my car. I also feel good about driving a car with such good numbers.

The total bill was $612.16 which included the test and sending the result to the State.

Total parts were $305 of which $280 was the new cat.


When I got home I put the car on the lift to inspect the workmanship. I would say the work was good. The routing of the section of pipe to replace one of the Ys was neat. The O2 sensor is mounted on top of the new pipe and is very accesable. The O2 sensor was mounted on top of the removed Y and was a fair PITA to change. The welds appear to be MIG or wire feed and are OK. They are not the things of beauty a person skilled with a TIG setup might do but they are better than what I could do or what I remember a muffler shop of old would do.

Most definiatly I can recomend these folks as giving excellent value and doing a fine job.

The brand of the cat is Miller Catalizer.

The shop is:

Auto Tech Smog & Repair
3655 Chuckwagon Way,Ste. B
Placerville CA 95667
1-530-622-7277


mif_slim you don't have to be sad anymore. For a ~40 mile drive you can be delivered from that Niello bandit.

Phil

[mif_slim]

Sweet!! Thanks for the email and UPDATE!! Imma be checking it out soon!
_________________
IIVII II IF

[walshja]

just an update, my wife's 528iT check engine light has still to come back on.

maybe these catalytic converter cleaners really do work long term . . .
_________________
joe

1994 325iC, 195k miles
http://home.comcast.net/~walshja/index.html <--- check it out

[walshja]

scratch that, just came back on last night . . .
_________________
joe

1994 325iC, 195k miles
http://home.comcast.net/~walshja/index.html <--- check it out

[PJK]

Hi Joe,

Sorry about that. The good news is that it is as bad news as we had been thinking. I found that Auto Zone sells cats. A double cat for my car is ~$180. In califirnia there are rules about the accuracy of the location of the honeycomb of the new cat relative to that of the old cat and the accuracy of the location of the O2 sensor. I think in California at least the $600 I spent was well spent to avoid hassels. Mine was installed by a licenced smog shop and approved. If next time someone questions it, I'll have my documentation in hand.

Here is a link to the pictures of my new double cat on the car and the removed Y pipe where the O2 sensor used to mount:

http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad220/coffee-phil/

I had put descriptions of the pictures in Photobucket but they didn't come out here. I'm just learning this stuff.

There is a view of the cat from the front showing the new mounting of the O2 sensor, one from the back showing the existing resonators, a closeup of the O2 sensor, and the old Y pipe.

I saved the old Y pipe so in addition to the picture I could salvage the O2 sensor fitting. The plan is to put it in the exhaust pipe of my Mustang along with My old O2 sensor from my last smog ordeal. This should help me tweek the AFB carburator which I plan to install on the Mustang along with an Edelbrock (SP?) performer manifold.

Phil