Well guys, I'm 5 miles away from hitting the 50k mark and so far so good (knocking on wood). I was shopping around for an exhaust system and piecing out a mix-match of parts when I ran across these replacement cats that are offered by Magnaflow. Legally, I guess you can't change out your cats unless the originals are 5 years old on the car, 50k miles have been run, or it has completely failed. Also, Magnaflow is claiming an additional 8HP and 12lbs of torque on the lower end.


Magnaflow has several universal models out, but since I'm in california I'm leaning more towards their 43000 series which is OBDII compliant. This brings me to my first question, does our 3G TL's have the OBDII (on board diagnostic) systems? I assuming yes since from reading other threads, removal of the cats and 02 sensors will yield the yellow indicator thus there's some type of closed loop diagnostic system involved, but just looking for confirmation.

Also, they offer the cats in a NO AIR (no O2 sensor) style, a single O2 sensor style, and a dual O2 sensor style.

Any thoughts or past experiences with these high flow cats? Thanks guys.

 

Good questions! I think all new cars are now OBDII. I suggest you contact Magnaflow to see if their parts are CARB (Ca. Air Resources Board) certified or compliant for on-road use. I suspect that they are not. Wish I could provide more information as I'm interested in the answers.

 

first im sorry if i burst your bubble,,
if you read the laws of obd2 you cant change anything with cats unless they come from factory,nothing
also high flow cats are not worth it,that power they claim is not true
dont mess up your car,
what you want to do is keep your stock system and make a second system you can just bolt up,hard part is to find a shop to do this for you,
dont find out the hard way,fines are big
and you give dealer a reason to void your factory warranty
i work at the dealer

ps you know the car has three cats,two you cant touch(built in headers) and the third doesnt hold back much power
acura has done a fine job of maxxing out the power in the tl
you intake hold back most of the power that you can tap
i will give you this,i thought it was ture til my frind that owns a muffler shop had to prove me wrong about non-factory obd2 cats,if you want to find the truth call c.h.p
they know,,
last thing you want is to have your car flagged to go to a c.h.p inspector
they only go by the law and even a different muffler is techinlly illegal
c.h.p. is hard core
ask a guy that gets a street racing ticket ,,.lol
c.a.r.b. board doesnt over-ride fed laws

 

i learned most of this the hard way,
i use to own a superchared stang and got a ticket by c.h.p for to loud mufflers
i had high flow cats(aftermarket obd2) and had to borrow a buddys stock system,cats and all to get my car to pass
and lots of $$$$ in fines
please dont have to learn the hard way like i did

 

Hey thanks for the insight 101. Yeah, I don't think I'll screw around with the cats, and use the extra cash for the supercharger instead!

 

its been a little while since ive looked into this but i seem to remember getting some memo from magnaflow (used to be a mechanic) about their carb approved obd2 cats. im not sure if it was regarding a future release or ones that were just released. in any event, its not really worth it, especially if you are in ca because the stock cats are freaking expensive and the "high flow" isnt gonna make much of a difference.

 

seeing how the pro-cats from E-shift are working, maybe it's time to look back into this? Possibly save a few hundred bucks...

 

no, they are not working, they wont pass smog in ca. e-shift hasnt given any documentation to show when they were carb and bar approved.

 

I have the Random Tech Cat and I live in Caifornia.When I come up for inspection I just plan on putting back my stock cat.........Otherwise i'm happy with the cat,Dont really know about any real big gains

 

^- thats pretty much what you are going to have to do in CA until the ball gets rolling on more approvals.

 

What would happen if they caught you with aftermarket high flow cats while doing inspections in CA other than reject your sticker? I will be putting mine on in about 3 weeks and will be moving to CA in a few months. Is the issue with passing emissions or having aftermarket cats, or both? Sorry for the silly questions.

 

I believe all they do is fail your car and then send you to a state ref. (not exactly sure on this though, i know you have to go to a state ref if you did a motor swap, im not sure if they do for one failure for wrong cats...) to have everything checked out. The state ref will give you a checklist of things that need to be met before its passed. If they see you with the different cats they will make you change them back to the OEM ones.

The issue in California is not whether the new cats will allow for a pass on the smog test (there are many capable cats out there now that will do it) but whether the paperwork is in line for the catalytic converter. The california air resource board is petitioned, i believe by different catalytic converter producers, for compliance stamps. CARB then goes through a testing procedure, blah blah blah, and ultimately will decide if the cat is good enough to be used in replacement of the OEM one for that specific car.
I know two years ago a lot of Domestic OBDII trucks/suv's gained CARB approval for certain cats, mainly because they shared the same engine so the board did not have to go through each specific car to ok the cats.

Its a pain in the ass, very slow process that California has. I think its also fairly expensive to test, and not a lot of producers are willing to comply with CARB regs, hence the lack of OBDII California compliant cats for imports. The exhaust/emissions shop I used to work at would receive lots of different publications from CARB and our suppliers regarding the types of cats that gained approval, because if a state inspector caught a shop installing an incorrect catalytic converter on a car the fines are rather large.

So, I think to specifically answer your questions...well the one about you putting the new cats on...when you move to CA and if you get CA plates I am pretty sure you will have to take your car to get it smogged. If its not a big deal to you, leave the cats on there, im pretty sure the car will pass the emissions test...its about 50/50 for the visual. Some smog guys dont spend a lot of time poking their head underneath the hood to make sure the right cats are on the car. If they do catch you, you get a repair slip...put the old cats back on, and you are set-though you will probably have to pay 65 bucks for the smog test again.


If any of the above is not 100 percent correct will someone please correct me? Its been a little while since I've looked over everything.

 

Thanks subinf. I guess I'll have to take a chance and find out then.

 

if you are moving to northern california i can give you the names of a few shops that, ahem, will ok the aftermarket cats, as long as it blows clean on the emissions

 

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks again.