Cat connected to flex pipe which leaks. fix?

[asetoftools]

The car i have has one of its catalytic converters attached to a flex pipe under the motor. A small leak was noticed the last time I had the car in. My mechanic has advised me away from buying an aftermarket cat + flex pipe assembly. He says its much better to use the original cat and just weld a new flex pipe on there. He said that aftermarket cats they dont fill the catalytic converter full, they just put a bit of catalyst at either end, whereas the OE one is full up and just straight up made better so it would be a waste swapping it out.

I have no codes, and no reason to suspect the cat is bad. He says that air entering the system before the cat should not have damaged it, but obviously backpressure, emissions and fuel economy may suffer with the hole there.

I think I will do the fix, but its primarily based on his recommendation that OEM is much better than aftermarket. After looking around a bit, people do have bad opinions of walker cats specifically. There is 180k KMS on the motor and i assume the cat as well.

It it worth it to pay a few hundred for this, or pay a few hundred more and get the correct part ordered and bolted in.

let me know what you think!

Topic

[dan]

a lot of systems for a lot of the new vehicles are very sensitive to emissions, and a lot of the aftermarket catalytic converters are built on the cheep so they don’t do the job as the manufacturer recommended model, so personally i would choose to go with the manufacturer recommended cat, or go with what your mechanic recommends, not a cheep cat.

[Jim Davis]

If you where not having any issues with the cat, codes, performance, etc, have a flex coupler welded in, Last one I took by the local muffler shop was only about 60 bucks for the coupler and him welding it in. They usually keep a stock of flex pipes in hand.

The more I think, it might not even have been that much.

[asetoftools]

Cool thank you. I will get some more quotes and not pay the guy a few hundred to do it! thanks!

[zero]

I would try to locate the piece that has the flex pipe in it and just replace the whole assembly. The original lasted 180k, a replacement should also. Depending on the shop, you may be able to get a ‘lifetime’ part, for whatever that would be worth in the end.

[Author]

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