Its been rattling for 20k miles now, and its not the damn heat shield, and now CEL is on, so want to replace.

04 has 110k on it, question is:

1) replace with oem cat - best price is $1000/ea?

2) replace with berk HFC's? - they told me $499 for the pair?

3) find use cat?

No mods, or anything, just need another 40k miles out of this car. Dont want to put a lot of money into it, but still want it to run right. Any suggestions, what difference would one be over any other.

 

find use cats... i have seen them from 300-500 bucks the pair.

 

Just worried that buying used could result in same problem, sooner than i would want.

 

to be honest, i dont hear of peoples cats going bad, you may be the second person that i have read about.
GL

 

I wouldn't buy used ones unless they had very few miles and you were getting a killer deal.
Looking at your options it looks like Berk would be the obvious choice.
$2,000 vs $500. If it is the honey comb that came apart inside the cat, you will probably see an increase in performance and fuel economy once you relplace them.

 

I wonder if the cats could be the cause of the rattle I've been hearing for the past couple of months... my car has only 55k on it though.

 

buy some test pipes second hand for $100, go to the nearest uprev protuner and get a tune, bam problem solved and your car will run amazing.

 

Kinetix hfc's are $400

 

high flow cats are carb legal right? i know test pipes arent carb legal... if im correct.

 

The rattle might be the heat shield cover/protector over the cats. I had a rattle because of the heat shields being all rusted up, cracked, and parts missing. Just have somebody remove the shields and the rattle should be gone. hopefully.

 

+1, Sometimes the welds break or bolts come loose on the heat shield which causes a metalic rattling sound usually heard at idle and at certain RPM point(s) when accelerating/decelerating.

If it's the guts of the cat you will usually notice a difference in performance and or fuel economy because the honeycomb guts break loose and cause a blockage in the exhaust.

 

Just look in the market place for used OEM or HFC cats and you can get them at a great price

 

No. High Flow Cats are not CARB legal even though you may still pass sniffer tests with them on your car. In fact, they have been banned from being sold in California.

 

got a set of oem cats with 50k miles.... shoot me a pm and maybe we can work something out.

 

I believe federal law stipulates that used cats cannot be sold or installed. I ran into this problem when looking for a replacement in my old Acura ($1100 from the dealer)[this was in Florida btw which has no emission standards]. Just saying if one were to buy used cats they would probably have to install the cats themselves.