roger20 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Apologies for bringing this up again particularly so soon after Shaun's recent post. The reason I have brought it up again is to ask a couple of questions. After looking under my van (2008 model 2.3litre) I took the following photos but couldn't readily identify the parts Hopefully someone could shed some light. The last picture is the back box, just before it goes into the silencer and I assume this is the (main) cat. The second shows what I assume to be just a flexible coupling. However it is the first (the one with the bracket and the oxygen sensor above) which puzzles me. What does this box do - is it another cat? What triggered this off was a neighbour calling round to say he had just had his cat stolen (the usual large pipe-cutter) and was going to buy the catclamp. So I asked one or 2 local van sales dealers whether they had had any recent thefts and putting this all into perspective, 2 out of the 3 said nothing in the last couple of years. However the third had just had half-a-dozen stolen recently. He got a local fabricator to just put connecting pipes in rather than replace them but now understands that VOSA are wise to this and the vehicles will fail next MOTs. His solution, to slow the opportunistic thief down was simply to weld a few rebars/threaded rods around the pipe to stop them using pipe cutters. This seems brilliantly simply to me and possibly a lot cheaper than a catclamp. I know it won't stop the determined thief who perhaps has the sort of firecrew cutters that have been talked about. However it must slow them down, perhaps be noisier and hopefully deter them so that they might go elsewhere. The other thing one of the dealers thought was that comparing a catclamp to an aftermarket cat (not Fiat but motor factor) he thought they were now available for around the £200 mark. Has anyone asked about availability and price for the X250? Anyone got any thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Yes there are two cats on X250, last time I looked they where (from memory) about £150 or £200 each Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyreman Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 The trouble is the damage thats done to the rest of the exhaust system by these thieving sods,by cutting the cats off they will cut through the easiest part of the system so although they are only after the cat they will cut through the front pipe and mid section of exhaust so you end up having to replace virtually the whole system as when the vehicle is new the exhaust goes up in one piece in a lot of cases.I work in Cardiff and there was a few car dealers targetted last night in one area,allegedly over thirty vehicles lost they`re cats so its still big business for some people but loads of heartache if you`ve been done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Hello, There is only one solution to this problem, and that of stolen statues, lead and drain covers.... The scrap metal industry pays cash for whatever metals are weighed in and it has got to stop. If all taransactions had to be made into a bank account with all records of names and addresses kept for inspection along with details of vehicles used for transportation and specifics about what was brought in there would be nowhere for the oiks to sell their ill gotten gains. The authorities would actually receive much more VAT and tax as a result so should not be concerned about the costs of administrating the job. The Police would have less crimes to investigate and the Insurance industry would have one less excuse for your increasing premiums. One day I will set up the Ministry Of Common Sense; but until then I will just have to drop the occasional hint! There is absolutely no justification for not implementing this immediately. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Well, those photos are certainly interesting to me, as I was never formally introduced to my cat, as it was nicked before I knew what it looked like! I don't know where Colin gets his prices from, but if he can get the bits concerned at that cost, then count me in. Fiat didn't quote me nearly two and a half grand for mainly labour. As for VOSA getting wise to vehicles without cats, my recent experience of rear springs and VOSA suggests they can't be taken seriously. If they want MOT testers to fail vehicles without cats, then they need a legitimate failure reason. What is that reason, exactly? Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuxDeluxe Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 My limited view is that cat or no cat, if it passes the emissions at MOT time then it is ok. If not then it fails. Someone with better knowledge please prove me wrong...... Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Shaun - 2011-07-12 6:25 PM I don't know where Colin gets his prices from, but if he can get the bits concerned at that cost, then count me in. Fiat didn't quote me nearly two and a half grand for mainly labour. Shaun At about time you posted about your cat being nicked some one posted a link to a company selling Fiat cats, annoyingly I can't find the link, or even remember what forum the link was posted on, but I can recall that the part numbers would suggest that they are made by BMcatalysts and I think (but am not 100% sure) that they are around the price I quoted, but as it would seem Ducato's may now be targeted, supply and demand will proboly mean they have gone up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 colin - 2011-07-12 10:01 PM Shaun - 2011-07-12 6:25 PM I don't know where Colin gets his prices from, but if he can get the bits concerned at that cost, then count me in. Fiat didn't quote me nearly two and a half grand for mainly labour. Shaun At about time you posted about your cat being nicked some one posted a link to a company selling Fiat cats, annoyingly I can't find the link, or even remember what forum the link was posted on, but I can recall that the part numbers would suggest that they are made by BMcatalysts and I think (but am not 100% sure) that they are around the price I quoted, but as it would seem Ducato's may now be targeted, supply and demand will proboly mean they have gone up Well....I recently posted a link to BM catalysts in connection with this, as they are local to me, and their exhaust arm did me a very nice and cheap clone of a Rapido tail-pipe for my last van. (gave them the rusted one as a pattern, came back from the factory as a copy the same afternoon!) AFAIK though, the X/250 parts are still awaiting type approval (though I have little doubt that they will be significantly cheaper than OEM once this is achieved). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 No it wasn't your post, it was for a retailer, but as I said the part numbers would indicate they where made by BM p.s. whilst attempting to find the retailer I came across a spanish retailer selling BM cats for X250 but these had a high markup confirmed to my by their price for tranny cats which I am more familier with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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