gingeh721
Junior Member
- Messages
- 247
After an increasing number of 4021 & then 4031 cels, in addition to a strange hissing sound coming from the exhaust, I had a haunch that the primary cats were knackered.
The car still passed the mot last week but I checked the lambda readings from last year and they had definitely deteriorated.
I booked the car into Longlife Exhausts in Basingstoke (purely on reviews and convenient location) and spoke to Matt who is the rep for Longlife. After a quick inspection and a chat about what he could do, the car was booked in.
Matt removed the cat sections and opened up the primaries at the top to keep things looking tidy. He removed the primary cat material and then welded everything back up. Matt then cut off my secondary cats and welded on 200 cell sports cats. The squish pipe and the primary boxes were retained and the sensor wiring easily reached. They are ridiculously long which is a bonus.
The bank 1 primary cat had completely disintegrated and the bank 2 primary cat wasn't far off.
The whole job cost £540 with a £60 forces discount from £600. The car was also checked on the diagnostic machine and Matt actually pointed out that my lambdas had been previously plugged into the opposite plugs before rectifying.
After a full ECU reset and a start up, the car immediately sounded louder. There was an increase in the bark, metallic rasp and volume. (I also have a SM X pipe fitted).
The car now revs up much quicker and the acceleration in all gears is VERY noticeably improved. There is so much more response from the engine which I wouldn't have thought possible from just removing the OEM cats.
However, the best part if this mod is that the car now sounds EPIC! It's now the car I dreamed it would be. It isn't obnoxious or silly loud when pottering and you can actually drive it in a reasonably stealthy mode. When you put your foot down the car sounds so much better. It has an increased metallic rasp and lots of orgasmic pops and crackles on overrun as well.
To summarise; if your cats are knackered, or even if they aren't, £600 quid for 200 cel cats and an amazing sound is very much worth it.
I know the forum mods have worked hard to get the US type exhaust fabricated and are still working on the Euro type. I would have waited to buy this but my car was starting to go into limp mode as a result of no primaries so I had no choice.
Hope this helps.
The car still passed the mot last week but I checked the lambda readings from last year and they had definitely deteriorated.
I booked the car into Longlife Exhausts in Basingstoke (purely on reviews and convenient location) and spoke to Matt who is the rep for Longlife. After a quick inspection and a chat about what he could do, the car was booked in.
Matt removed the cat sections and opened up the primaries at the top to keep things looking tidy. He removed the primary cat material and then welded everything back up. Matt then cut off my secondary cats and welded on 200 cell sports cats. The squish pipe and the primary boxes were retained and the sensor wiring easily reached. They are ridiculously long which is a bonus.
The bank 1 primary cat had completely disintegrated and the bank 2 primary cat wasn't far off.
The whole job cost £540 with a £60 forces discount from £600. The car was also checked on the diagnostic machine and Matt actually pointed out that my lambdas had been previously plugged into the opposite plugs before rectifying.
After a full ECU reset and a start up, the car immediately sounded louder. There was an increase in the bark, metallic rasp and volume. (I also have a SM X pipe fitted).
The car now revs up much quicker and the acceleration in all gears is VERY noticeably improved. There is so much more response from the engine which I wouldn't have thought possible from just removing the OEM cats.
However, the best part if this mod is that the car now sounds EPIC! It's now the car I dreamed it would be. It isn't obnoxious or silly loud when pottering and you can actually drive it in a reasonably stealthy mode. When you put your foot down the car sounds so much better. It has an increased metallic rasp and lots of orgasmic pops and crackles on overrun as well.
To summarise; if your cats are knackered, or even if they aren't, £600 quid for 200 cel cats and an amazing sound is very much worth it.
I know the forum mods have worked hard to get the US type exhaust fabricated and are still working on the Euro type. I would have waited to buy this but my car was starting to go into limp mode as a result of no primaries so I had no choice.
Hope this helps.
