(T) HELP! New Catalytic Converter???

Hi all,

Please can someone help me. I pulled up to a set of traffic lights yesterday and when they turned green I tried to accelerate off but when I did this a strange noise was immediately noticeable coming from the bottom of the car. I later realised that the exhaust seems to have disconnected from the manifold at the very front just below the engine. I took it to Kwik Fit who stuck it on the ramp and advised me that two bolts either side of the exhaust (where it connects to the manifold) had complete broken off! The bolt heads came off while I was driving and the rest of the bolt is stuck in the socket. It means that it will probably have to be drilled out in some way.

I took it to my mechanic and he said I need a new Catalytic Converter as he won't be able to get the bolts out. He said it would cost between £200 and £250!!! (that's all I need coming up to Christmas ). I was hoping one of you gents could help me out because for starters, we can't even find the part. His contacts don't have them any where! He said he would try and call a few more people on Monday. Is there another way around this? Surely the bolts shouldn't just snap off like that???

Thanks a lot in advance for any help!

Ned

Do you mean these two?


Difficult to do in situ perhaps but if you get the cat assembly off (which you're going to do anyway) then it shouldn't be hard to drill the old studs right out and just put through bolts in their place

Machine shop could drill them out and put in helicoil inserts to accept new studs if you wanted

Thanks Deckchair5! You are exactly right. That is where the two bolts have broken off. If I was able to get that off in some way I could take it down to a machine shop of some kind and hopefully they could get the screws out. I'm not sure where I would find a place like that though. Any ideas where I could possibly purchase a used Cat Conveter? Thanks ;-)

http://www.cats-direct-shop.co.uk/fi...ust-system.php

If that were mine I would take the whole assembly off drill out the broken studs and weld in two bolts in their place jobs a good un ..no big deal really and any competent motor engineer should be able to do that

Even your average exhaust places are very used to dealing with broken exhaust studs as it happens to them all the time. They may even be able to get a grip on the old studs and turn them out with a bit of heat

Indeed a posibility if theres enough protruding these young uns dont alf make a mountain out of a mole hill dont they decks

nah.. simpler easier thing to do is s/s bolts & nuts, easy no welding, if later you need to fanny about with cat easy to come off job you can easily do yourself

Tbh at work we get all site gear in for repair... so see lots of rusty screws, nuts, bolts....

like decks says get a torch onto it.. pair of vise-grips

other option is to use stud extractors/easyouts..

or drill and re-tapp

Well there you go, more useful answers than Prime Minsters's question time.
Careful not to damage the bottom lambda though as that'll put the budget out

Thanks everyone! I'm gonna take it round to a few more exhaust places to see if they can help. I wouldn't have a clue how to do it myself unfortunately. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks again!

I'd find a new mechanic too....new cat? sounds like he was trying to make a fast buck there....

I'd have to agree with that chris. £200 - £250? My arse!

Ned - this happened to my exhaust and I went to a local backstreet exhaust garage and they sorted it in no time. charged me 20 notes.

Diddly!

There you go ..just as I said no big deal really is it

God I wish I could find someone to do this. I have taken it to both Kwik Fit and ATS and they want nothing to do with it. I don't understand why I would have to have the whole Cat replaced considering there's nothing wrong with it. I'm gonna just phone around a few exhaust centres tomorrow and explain the problem. I had another look at it and it looks like the bolts can be gripped from the top so hopefully someone will do it. The guy at ATS told me he has never seen this happen before either!

Thanks again guys