Afternoon all,

Unfortunately, it seems that the FiatForum version of ePER is partially broken, so I cannot get a genuine part number. However, maybe the community can help me. I need a front catalytic converter assembly for my 2004 mk2b HGT, does anybody know where would be the best place to purchase one? I've been quoted £550 fitted, but that seems a bit steep when I find this for less than £150 delivered. Can anyone see any reason why this part wouldn't work? I've just acquired myself a new garage that will be very useful for fitting this myself, particularly since it has a very useful feature (and a house too):



Cheers,

Mick

Big Mick, at Eurocarcare.net. You can call, email, or Skype him...!

**** you and your car pit!! Super jelly of it :,(

Best of luck fixing it

gijohn2 said:

**** you and your car pit!! Super jelly of it :,(

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The trouble is, folk think I pressured Gemma into buying this place because of the garage, but the house was her favourite too. The little Punto looks lost in there:



Thank you homeward, I'll give Big Mick a call to see what he can do for me.

Cheers,

Mick

Actually, I have a follow-up question about this, what penetrating lubricants do folk recommend here for exhausts? Whilst the part is on order I may as well wire-brush the threads and drown them all in something good.

Going to give that eBay one a go. MOT test is due in a month so I can verify its effectiveness. Going to pick up some penetrating lubricant on the way home today so suggestions very much appreciated. Well, I do need to justify the COSHH cupboard somehow!

Cheers,

Mick

Plus Gas or GT-85. Halfords usually have a few in.

fingers99 said:

Plus Gas or GT-85. Halfords usually have a few in.

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Cheers fingers99, all I knew was that WD-40 is actually pretty poor for this purpose.

Well, gave this a go using the part from eBay. Here's how my experience went:

1) A day before commencing work, I applied plenty of penetrating lubricants to the nuts and bolts required and attempted to undo them. The front-cat to rear-cat bolts were rusted solid and the heads severely corroded so I knew these were going to be cut. However, I wanted to preserve the manifold studs. Three came off easily, got a bit over-confident with the fourth and... snap. Bugger!

2) Knowing that I needed to repair a stud, I got some M8 bolts, easy-outs, drill bits and, if the worst happens, helical thread repair kit.

3) Removed front cat as far as where it had come away from the flexi-pipe. There was some of the broken stud protruding, which I tried to Dremel a flat onto, but I just couldn't get enough purchase, so I switched to the drill and easy-outs.

4) Easy-outs were the most useless, softer than the stud itself so no help at all. Drilling out the stud was harder work than expected since it kept work-hardening. Any tips to avoid this very much appreciated.

5) Stroke of luck! The drilling eventually pushed the threads of the stud out the other side, tried with a bolt and the threading in the manifold was fine, no need to repair.

6) New stud made up from M8 bolt.

7) Flexible pipe section removed from the rear catalytic converter by grinding the nuts off using a very anaemic air-powered angle grinder. Going to treat myself to a proper angle-grinder because it took forever.

8) The pattern part has one difference to the genuine Fiat part, the rearmost stud on the Fiat part is mounted to the catalytic converter, but not on the pattern part. A through-bolt is required in this position which is ridiculously fiddly to get into position single-handedly. Managed it though.

9) The fitting kit was almost completely useless, wrong size bolts and the gasket was ill-fitting. Modified the gasket to fit.

10) Five hours later, despite the luxury of a pit, all done and tested. Yes, yes, I know that's pretty slow, but it wasn't quite as straightforward as I hoped.

ifind using a car pit slows job down ..hardly use mine now except for
spraying a car with waxyoyl,.

glad to hear you got it sorted.

hi
i never saw this thread so im a bit late to comment but here goes
that cat might fail the mot emissions next year as its only a copy so if your co is just failing bear it in mind
with relation to bolts to head a lot of these copy cats dont line up too good ive seen some with lower bolts left out by i guess fast fit emporiums so you done good

It's European type approved, so I expect it to perform a expected or I'll be making a claim against the two year warranty it came with. Jumping in and out of the pit cost quite a bit of time admittedly, but drilling the broken stud out would have been seriously tricky without the pit. Very difficult to raise the car on axle stands high enough.

MikeSalt said:

It's European type approved, so I expect it to perform a expected or I'll be making a claim against the two year warranty it came with. Jumping in and out of the pit cost quite a bit of time admittedly, but drilling the broken stud out would have been seriously tricky without the pit. Very difficult to raise the car on axle stands high enough.

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i can only report what i see
an easy get out would be for seller to argue that your engine was burning slight amounts of oil thus negating warranty claim
im not interested either way
just telling it as it is

Sorry s and b, I didn't mean to jump down your throat on that one. Car is due its MOT on Wednesday so I'll get a chance to verify the catalytic converter's effectiveness before I leave feedback for the seller.

Well, the verdict is in, and the car passed its MOT first time! So I can recommend that part from the Bay. Happy Days, £360 saved and valuable experience gained!

Since this thread, I treated myself to some proper Snap-on Easy-outs and an 18v cordless angle grinder with a couple of 5Ah batteries. Much better tools for these sort of jobs.