New Exhaust 2004 D4D

January 8, 2012

Hi all

Not been on here for ages as the avensis has been performing as a Japanese car should do although now getting older there are a few issues!

Changed the Battery the other day and removed, cleaned the starter motor as described on another post on here, now start fine but will probably replace the starter in the next couple of weeks!

Anyway apart from the odd creak and groan from underneath the exhaust pipe is blowing. It sounds as if it is coming from the front, have not looked yet!

I spoke to a mate who is a mechanic and he says it is probably the flexi pipe and that it could probably be cut out and replaced for around £60 or so however I decided to call an exhaust fitter to ask for a price should it be the worse case! He was unable to give a price as his system did not list any prices so said it was probably Toyota only! So I sat down and called MrT and was told the front pipe + cat is £841.00!

I then called a company who make stainless exhaust systems, while you wait, and was quoted for a CAT back system £275.00!!

They said they could remove the CAT and just replace with a pipe and the extra for that is £45.00 so total of £325

They assured me that there would be no problem at all taking the CAT out and my mate said the same, in fact he said it would run much better, and return slightly better mpg!

The stainless pipe company can fit a replacement CAT for £140 bringing the total for a stainless system, with CAT, of £415.00

It is a no brainer really IF it is not the flexi pipe and a quick cheap fix BUT my question is this:

If the CAT is removed will I get the engine management light on all the time? Will it affect the ECU?

I did read on here that it is illegal to remove the CAT on a vehicle that was designed to run with a CAT but providing it passes the MOT who really cares!?

Anyone done this? Any comments?

Please though no comments from any tree huggers telling me how irresponsible it is to remove the CAT!

The car is actually registered in France so has to go through a CT (equivalent to the MOT) and the CT test for diesels is an opacity test. I am not sure what the figures mean but the maximum figure on the opacity test is 3.0 m-1 whatever that means and at our last test at the end of 2010 (MOT here is every 2 years) our car passed with a reading of 0.5 m-1.

Cheers for any thoughts as to if removing CAT will cause other issues!

January 11, 2012

No one got any thoughts?

No one got rid of the CAT?

Looks like I could be the first then!

Hi all
Not been on here for ages as the avensis has been performing as a Japanese car should do although now getting older there are a few issues!
Changed the battery the other day and removed, cleaned the starter motor as described on another post on here, now start fine but will probably replace the starter in the next couple of weeks!
Anyway apart from the odd creak and groan from underneath the exhaust pipe is blowing. It sounds as if it is coming from the front, have not looked yet!
I spoke to a mate who is a mechanic and he says it is probably the flexi pipe and that it could probably be cut out and replaced for around £60 or so however I decided to call an exhaust fitter to ask for a price should it be the worse case! He was unable to give a price as his system did not list any prices so said it was probably Toyota only! So I sat down and called MrT and was told the front pipe + cat is £841.00!
I then called a company who make stainless exhaust systems, while you wait, and was quoted for a CAT back system £275.00!!
They said they could remove the CAT and just replace with a pipe and the extra for that is £45.00 so total of £325
They assured me that there would be no problem at all taking the CAT out and my mate said the same, in fact he said it would run much better, and return slightly better mpg!
The stainless pipe company can fit a replacement CAT for £140 bringing the total for a stainless system, with CAT, of £415.00
It is a no brainer really IF it is not the flexi pipe and a quick cheap fix BUT my question is this:
If the CAT is removed will I get the engine management light on all the time? Will it affect the ECU?
I did read on here that it is illegal to remove the CAT on a vehicle that was designed to run with a CAT but providing it passes the MOT who really cares!?
Anyone done this? Any comments?
Please though no comments from any tree huggers telling me how irresponsible it is to remove the CAT!
The car is actually registered in France so has to go through a CT (equivalent to the MOT) and the CT test for diesels is an opacity test. I am not sure what the figures mean but the maximum figure on the opacity test is 3.0 m-1 whatever that means and at our last test at the end of 2010 (MOT here is every 2 years) our car passed with a reading of 0.5 m-1.
Cheers for any thoughts as to if removing CAT will cause other issues!

January 11, 2012

There is probably a sensor in the CAT that will be left hanging and cause the EML to come one all the time, yes you will be a tree killer :lol: .

All the other things are worse case scenario, could you be driving illegally which could invalidate the insurance as the car has been modified? I have no knowledge of how serious the french are on stuff like this, but i do know there some of their motoring offences carry very serious fines. The new sat nav speed camera detector laws being 1500 euro.