A fight to protect my catalytic converter

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by BCam

Here's one city's approach to theft prevention:

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/0...th-spray-paint

Nice to see a proactive approach by law enforcement. Still not a solution, but possibly a deterrence.


Herb

[rt66paul]

The belly pan could be ok, if there was enough flow through to keep the heat down. Enclosing the cat and the transmission with a belly pan could just raise temps inside the transmission. Maybe some type of tough mesh(like what you might have for outside stairs or platforms) would be better than solid sheet.
Or we could just add enough weight to our units that they shouldn't need cats anymore.....

[BrianW]

Reainting— That seems like a waste of time. Thieves will just take the cats to a scrap dealer the next town over.

Like the dealers don’t know the cats they buy are stolen? I mean a guy pulls up in a pickup truck with 50 cats in the bed and they think they were legitimately sourced? [emoji848]

Needs to be dealt with at the buying level. Dealers should only buy from verifiably legit sources like repair shops, junkyards, etc.

[rt66paul]

When there is money to be made(or saved), many businesses will look the other way or find ways around the laws. Look at how many illegal immigrants work in local factories, slaughter houses and as cooks in restaurants. The companies know how to get them good enough counterfeit papers to pass HRD to cover their butts. Most of these HRD departments have a go to guy that can fix up the potential employees and most(if not all), have paper from the same source.
How many body shops buy front clips, doors, glass from chop shops? It is much cheaper to put the word out than it is to buy from an auto dismantler(especially for cars that are too new to hit the junkyard with intact body parts).
If there were no laws about installing used cats on cars, how much worse do you think it would be?
Just like in the 50s - fancy hub caps and wheel covers being stolen over and over and resold back to the car owners(just a tax for parking in the neighborhood).

[BoxterRocks]

Just another indicator of how advanced the moral decay has become in the United States of America.

[BroncoHauler]

Stayed focused on the subject of catalytic converter theft prevention or this thread will be locked. Not peripheral discussions of who might be stealing them or why they are stealing them, just the subject of catalytic converters and how to keep the one(s) on your vehicle on your vehicle.

Herb

[boywonder]

Since cats are crazy hot when they are operating, I wonder how long the paint lasts.....this is a tough problem to solve.

[campism]

Originally Posted by BrianW

How hard is it to cut 1/4” wire rope with a Sawzall? Seems like it wouldn’t slow them down that much?

I have not tried it but I suspect a Sawzall would be a hassle on that cable. The thing to use would be a cordless angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. A savvy thief would probably have one of each, just in case, but good luck.

[Glenn P.]

For those that still think this is rare, here is a quick story from this week.

A coworker of mine had his 20 year old Chevy p/u stolen last weekend. It was recovered a few days later. Aside from a little damage and the contents of the truck missing, the cat had been taken. At the police tow yard my coworker encountered numerous other people there to get their cars back. He said nearly every one of these people also said their cat had been removed, this was at least 25 people!

Just wanted to point out that at least out here in SoCal, this is a big issue. I still like my idea of installing a test pipe. For the comment about the fumes when idling, he must drive a gasser. The diesels produce extremely low levels of carbon monoxide anyway. And if you live in SoCal, why are you idling your van for hours on end? It's not cold here and we have loads of sun to charge batteries with.

[rt66paul]

Mainly, because it is illegal to do do so. I live in Glendora and the police department now has a program where they will etch identifying marks into the cat(license plate or VIN) free of charge. This will the honest buyers honest.