Cali Kid Corals

Cat converter stolen

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sfsuphysics

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Welp it was inevitable, someone yanked my cat on my Prius. Think it happened sometime last week or before, I noticed a small spring on the street, and didn't pay much attention to it, then when I left today and heard the god awful sound I knew what happened, looked under the car and saw another of those springs. Unfortunately California law doesn't allow after market converters, and the Toyota one is going to be somewhere in the 1500-2000 range, and no I'm not handy enough to install it myself so no going around to Nevada shops asking them to ship one, which would cost closer to $400.

I've calmed down a bunch, but effectively my car just got stolen, $2600 quote to replace, plus $400 to add one of those after market steel plates to protect it, for a 2006 car just isn't worth it.
 
Sorry to hear it, man. Same thing happened to us a couple months ago.

If you've got comprehensive insurance, use that. I think we just had to pay our deductible (~$500) and the rest was taken care of, but...yeah. Lowlifes. Ours was stolen overnight right in front of our apartment complex, in a well-lit parking lot, close to a police station.
 
14 year old car, I've long since dropped the comprehensive on it in favor of just liability. And yeah the cost savings in doing that was more than the cost of repair so it's not like I JUST did it.
 
Yes, it usually quickly pays for itself dumping comprehensive on old cars.

I don't think aftermarket being illegal is really true.
I thought you just needed one with some CA approved CARB tag.
Maybe a used one?
 
you mentioned the springs, is it bolt on on both sides? or is it welded on one side? if its bolt on on both sides it would be a really easy install...
 
It's not that aftermarket is illegal, it's illegal to install a non CARB approved one, which for hybrid vehicles do not exist apparently, so it's Toyota OE only, and if I were to install a non-CARB one that is what would be illegal, oh and to add insult to injury... apparently it's illegal to sell in California any non-CARB compliant one.
While I'm sure used would be ok, but I'm guessing those still fetch a premium given the problem in theft, and I have no idea where I would search, I started looking for junk yard and used converters and much of what was sent back to me were articles talking of theft in California and I only started getting angry again.

I honestly have no idea how it's installed, just looking at this part, PartsGeek , looks like it is just a bolt on procedure, so assuming I could put the car on some jacks, yeah doing this myself would be doable I'm guessing. However it'll only be useful until the next smog test is required, then I'd be screwed.
 
Ahh for some reason i thought you were saying you could get a carb legal one from elsewhere if you could install yourself.
 
The thieves may have damaged the bolts and pipes also.

You can buy "universal" CARB compliant ones. Some are only $200.
You need to cut and weld to fit.
Then get some local shop to hack it on for you. A small shop looking for work should be reasonable.
 
Did Toyota say anything to you about “why” theives are targeting second gen prius’?
It’s been happening in my neighborhood as well according to our neighborhood watch alerts.
I know years ago theives were targeting Toyota pick ups. Now it seems they have moved on to the Prius. Why?
 
Newjack said:
Did Toyota say anything to you about “why” theives are targeting second gen prius’?
It’s been happening in my neighborhood as well according to our neighborhood watch alerts.
I know years ago theives were targeting Toyota pick ups. Now it seems they have moved on to the Prius. Why?
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They keeping getting them stolen, and too expensive to fix legally, so there’s a black market for stolen ones to replace with
 
It’s crazy because every car on the road built after 1975 has a CC on it.
Why only go after the Prius units? They must know something special about them that makes them more valuable than others. Plus, they are mostly targeting the 2nd generation Prius. Not the newer ones
 
Yeah that video certain shows how it's done. I saw the wires that were snipped, the springs were as shown in the video, although I think they hit it with a saw because the cut looks at an angle. Video still doesn't explain why it's so prominent, maybe they're easier to get to, maybe as John said black market for stolen parts, either way yeah I had a little PTSD watching that video. And while I have eased up on being dead set against repair, there's zero way I'm repairing until I see what's out there as far as protection. I've seen the rods before, one of the local dealers actually does a plate as mentioned, but it does have some holes in it presumably so the inspection can happen.

None of this shit would be a problem though if California didn't change the rules of smog test for the Prius, before they simply had no smog test simply put a Prius doesn't idle like a normal car, and I'm sure some other reasons, so the smog test can't physically happen. Now they simply inspect to see that the stuff hasn't been tampered with, which seems odd, like was there really a huge issue with people removing cat.converters of their Prius?
 
JVU said:
They keeping getting them stolen, and too expensive to fix legally, so there’s a black market for stolen ones to replace with
Click to expand...
In the Marine Corps there was a saying, “There’s only one thief in all of the Marine Corps. Everyone else is just trying to get their stuff back.”
 
They won't pass smog check, the check is simply an inspection to make sure it's the Toyota part, there literally is nothing they're checking other than seeing if that's the case. As there was this huge community of Prius hackers who were "sooping" up their Prius for more power or something.

I mean I got 14 years out of the car, and to be honest I quite literally just passed a smog check, so I have 2 years (I think) before the next. An option is to go for an after market (i.e. non-California) converter install it, get another couple years out of it, then maybe try to sell the car in Nevada or something, I mean there's only like 130k miles on it which is relatively low. Someone on one of the Prius boards actually said "Have a friend/family in another state order the part, then FedEx it to you".

Actually a bigger worry of mine is my wife's car, Rav4 but also a hybrid. Is it something about the Prius, do I need to worry about my wife's car and get one of those shields installed pronto? I mean looking at photos of the underbody it looks like a similar issue with just getting under, cut, cut, unscrew and you're set. Are cats cheaper for that particular car? I mean these are questions I need answered.
 
sfsuphysics said:
They won't pass smog check, the check is simply an inspection to make sure it's the Toyota part, there literally is nothing they're checking other than seeing if that's the case. As there was this huge community of Prius hackers who were "sooping" up their Prius for more power or something.

I mean I got 14 years out of the car, and to be honest I quite literally just passed a smog check, so I have 2 years (I think) before the next. An option is to go for an after market (i.e. non-California) converter install it, get another couple years out of it, then maybe try to sell the car in Nevada or something, I mean there's only like 130k miles on it which is relatively low. Someone on one of the Prius boards actually said "Have a friend/family in another state order the part, then FedEx it to you".

Actually a bigger worry of mine is my wife's car, Rav4 but also a hybrid. Is it something about the Prius, do I need to worry about my wife's car and get one of those shields installed pronto? I mean looking at photos of the underbody it looks like a similar issue with just getting under, cut, cut, unscrew and you're set. Are cats cheaper for that particular car? I mean these are questions I need answered.
Click to expand...
I can mail one to you if you need.
 
Check our car-part.com. If you take a pic, we can see if you just need the cat or not. OEM replacement. Used though, but you will pass smog.

It’s easy to replace. I wouldn’t pay 2500 for a car that old.


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