MrJohnTan

I got my car back from SP engineering yesterday. In addition to the clutch job, they also replaced my cats. I first got the car with an exhaust rattle and a raw exhaust smell. I figured it was just an exhaust leak. I come to find that both the pre-cat and the main cat were toast. After I got the car back, the car runs a lot quieter, also that raw exhaust smell is now gone. I also have a little more power, probably because that crap inside was broken apart and clogging everything up. After I get the car smogged, im going to gut these cats out and put them back in the car. Here are some pics....

The main cat.

MrJohnTan

The pre-cat..

MrJohnTan

What I had to replace...

JMSxAP1

Good info to know. Glad you had it taken care of. You must have nice friends to drive you around.

SRQ400

How many miles were on it to get them that way?

fc3s7

What did you end up using to replace them - new Lexus parts, a generic cat welded up by a muffler shop, what?

How much did it set you back?

Does your car run well? Typically cats last a pretty long time. Having a misfiring cylinder or being over-rich can kill a cat, though.

Dale

MrJohnTan

I picked up the car with 74K miles. The shop says that it was caused by the previous owner probably letting the car idle for too long.

I replaced them with the same parts off a n/a supra used. Picked them both up for $80 installed. The car runs fine for now.

Unnatural

Glad that your car is running well now. Your old cats look toasted. I just wanted to caution you on gutting them and replacing the new (or used but working) cats. The only right way to do this is replacing them with a straight pipe. When you gut a cat leaving only the emtpy shell you will kill velocity inside the exhaust system. You want to retain a high exhaust gas velocity inside the pipe to promote scavenging from the cylinders. The sudden expansion and then reduction of area inside the left over shell of the cat will kill velocity and cause turbulance. Worse yet, you may actually loose power. If you don't have emissions testing to worry about you can replace the cats with a straight pipe (or maybe even having a straight pipe welded into the empty cat shell). If you have to deal with emissions then just get a high flow replacement cat. Just my $.02.

~Brendan