NAC..'00 VW Passat 4Motion...$7200 in repairs!!!

[Brett Dikeman]

On Jun 10, 2005, at 3:58 PM, Tyson Varosyan wrote:

> Catalytic converters are a bunch of crap anyway! They do not work!
> Do what many people I know do on all their cars. Take a hole saw  
> with a long
> extension, take out your cat, and drill the thing out. Or get a  
> "Test pipe"
> if there is one made for your car. Ether way, nuke the thing.

DO NOT do this under any circumstances.  Removing emissions controls  
is a federal (and state) offense; just ask the chaps at a shop in  
southern New England that was just completely shut down by federal  
officials for removing catalytic converters and/or gutting them.  The  
fine is several thousand dollars PER VEHICLE.

Despite what Mr. Varosyan says, catalytic converters are there for a  
reason, and it is extremely irresponsible to remove them (same goes  
for venting your crankcase to the atmosphere; it's a HUGE source of  
HC emissions; there's a reason that stuff has been getting put back  
in the intake for forty years).

You want to remove cats and/or vent your crankcase to the  
atmosphere?  You can, as far as I'm concerned, when you're not #$@! 
ing up everyone else's air.  Until then, given we're all breathing  
the crap your car does or does not put out- play by the rules.

> Every car that I have seen without it's cat's shows better numbers  
> on the
> emission tests than it did with them.

Then the vehicles were not properly maintained, the cats dead, the  
car was tested improperly, or you're making it up.  There is no  
conspiracy.

> Those things are bogus, much like O2
> sensors, and only work under certain conditions for certain  
> problems in a
> lab.

No.  Actually, they really do work.  The ECU varies the mixture  
slightly between lean and rich, causing the cat to load alternately  
on CO, NOx or HCs...and catalyze them when mixture swings in the  
opposite direction.

> Japan, the most environmentally conscious country
> in the world, does not use cats or O2 sensors for just that reason.

I'm sorry, but you're completely wrong on this.  Japan introduced  
very restrictive (at the time) emissions requirements in 1978, which  
spurred the development of the three-way catalytic converter.  The  
standards were revised in 2000, which is one of the reasons Honda and  
Toyota have been cranking out (insert adjectives such as "ultra") Low  
Emission Vehicles since then (that and the California emissions  
regulations, as well as "fleet" quotas on emissions; every Prius  
means another Highlander for Toyota, basically).  They all use  
catalytic converters and O2 sensors.  Volvo and several other  
companies now also use radiators with a low-temperature catalyst that  
works on air flowing through the radiator, making them actually  
negative emission vehicles.

> Ohh and the partial reason that some cats cost so much is because the
> leading tips of the honeycombs are now made of Platinum.

The honeycombs are made of ceramic, and each of the stages has a  
platinum coating throughout.  They also use rhodium and palladium  
(for first and second stages, respectively).

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/