quattro digest, Vol 1 #2581 - 18 msgs

[superba]

Hi All,

There's confusion here, perhaps semantical or in terminology.  I live in
California which I believe to have the most stringent emission laws
governing catalytic converters.  However, it is legitimate for "licensed?"
companies to rebuild cats.  About a year ago when I was looking for a cat, I
discovered a manufacturer in Richmond, CA, that builds custom cats.  You
give them an order and they fill the cat with "beads" and ship it to you.
They avoid a large inventory of finished goods and it's legit.  It is,
however, against the regulations for salvage yard to sell a cat to an end
user, at least according to most of the wrecking yard people I've spoken to.
I'm sure all of you know of exceptions.  My car, an 81 - 5KT with over 326K
miles passed smog testing last year with an empty cat.  However, I replaced
it with a "working" cat that chokes my exhaust not long after.

The company that remanufactured cats is Marvin Miller Catalytic Converters,
Richmond, CA, 510-783-2212.  They will know a lot more about their business
than I do, I'm sure.

HTH.

Cheers!

Jim Jordan

>  Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 09:29:48 -0800 (PST)
>  From: "Mark L. Chang" <mchang at ee.washington.edu>
>  To: Rob Andrews <randrews at sbcglobal.net>
>  cc: <DGraber460 at aol.com>, <quattro at audifans.com>
>  Subject: RE: [urq] Cat rebuilders
>
>  I haven't been following the thread closely, so if this has been said, I
>  apologize.
>
>  AFAIK, there are state and national laws (in the US) that prevent
>  a) cat rebuilding
>  b) installing a used cat
>  c) removing & replacing a cat that isn't defective
>
>  FYI.
>
>  ---
>  1991 90q20v