STOLEN EXHAUST

[pblake55]

I came out to my car this morning and found that upon starting it, that it may a hell of a racket. A trip to the garage and they have now informed me that someone has stolen my "cat". Why would someone want to steal a part of my exhaust? My car is a 5 year old audi 2.0 tdi is my exhaust really worth stealing?

[CatfishCKY]

I've heard that cats are worth a fortune on the scrap metal market - that's probably what's happened!

[gowmonster]

^^^^ this, the catalyst in the cat is valuable, can contain gold, silver and platinum.

[SD1992]

As above, very expensive materials in them! It used to happen a lot back in the 90s I believe, not so much now though.

No idea why mind you!

[I'm Rick james]

Cats down the scrap yard are worth £40-60. The bigger the engine the heavier/more platinum inside so the more money its worth. They tend not to bother on little 1.0L as the money is not worth it. Vans are a popular one as well.

[eskidavies]

a car garage by me had all the cars done once ,they jacked them up and just cut through them with a cordless reciprocating saw.

[Fer]

There are various reports in my local paper regarding Legoland getting hit. Citroen Picasso's seem popular at the moment.

[minicab]

4x4s are an easy target as you can just crawl underneath them... a chain pipe cutter and you'll have £75 away in five minutes with little or no noise.

[Honda Rush]

s + others are regular thieves of cat convertors around the colchester/sudbury/hadleigh area, The police even have a day per month where you take your vehicle to a tyre center and pop it on the lift and have your cat marked so when it does end up stolen a slight chance it can be traced.
Took my X3 in for its mot in july tester called me over to have a look and yes some ba**ted had sawn 80% through up stream off the cat. He/they must/may have been disturbed to only partly do the deed.
There are brake and flow and return fuel lines only a few inches away from the cut, a small nick in a brake line could have been very serious indead.
But no other damage was caused thank goodness.
The only place i had left the car over night was for 3 days at a cheap gatwick airport motel, so prob a gang of two, With one member and a trolly jack the other slips underneath, battery powered recipicating saw two cuts cat in a sack and on to the next large engined car etc.
Could have got back from the flight no cat no brake lines no fuel lines damage would have been into the £0000s
So had to take the exhaust system off weld up the cut and re fit a very lucky escape from some low life underneath my car, Pity the seals in the trolly jack did not blow and the X3 sat on his head for a while.
Rant over