Lexus RX400h catalyst theft

[Casa1862]

freenote said:

stevemcs said:

Aftermarket cats are rubbish, oem all the way, op did you lose the sensors as well ?

Fancy paying Lexus £3k? Not me

Won't this level of theft/damage be covered by insurance?

[peterperkins]

A couple of neighbours with baseball bats could have interrupted there little game and made noise etc put the windscreen through on the car etc.

The blatant nature of that video just really riles me..

[Hoofy]

peterperkins said:

A couple of neighbours with baseball bats could have interrupted there little game and made noise etc put the windscreen through on the car etc.

So the Prius driver not only has to replace a stolen cat but his windscreen as well???

[R129 300SL]

freenote said:

R129,
Could you let me know how you get on with this please.
I’ve taken her off the road for now but I want to do similar.
Much appreciated.

Hi

I put the catalytic converter on yesterday. (The one I got from eBay pictured earlier).

Had taken it to a number of exhaust places who insisted it was the wrong one and couldn’t fit it. Went home and fitted it myself with a friend.

As a tip you may need to trim back the remaining distal pipe on the car slightly to prevent the slight bend from malaligning the new catalyst. Front clamped on with a 60mm exhaust sleeve clamp. For the back joint it slips into the existing pipe and I used a standard 54mm exhaust I clamp from Halfords. Used some exhaust paste to help seal.

If I had to do again in hindsight I probably would go for the cheaper £150 delivered from the USA one. That would have connected to the flange and been cheaper as well.

[R129 300SL]

Forgot to mention seems to be working fine and car sounds similar to how it used to.

[J50N WA]

my RX400h Cat was stolen last night. 3 lads in a Audi parked in front of the driveway and went to work. Bold as brass, baseball bats and masks on, no number plate on the Audi. By the time i got outside it had gone.

Taken to Mr Exhaust for a universal Cat replacement today, car ahead was another RX400h, same issue. Car after me - CRV same thing again.. Service guy tells me there doing hundreds of them.

My advice, debadge the car or maybe put RX350 badge on to disguise.. wish Id have done, might work might not..

[Tom _M]

How much can you sell a cat for? Just wondering what can get for them, and how many are nicking to make it worth their while?

[untakenname]

£400 for Japanese CATs, £150-200 for German is the going rate now. Getting a lot of chancers on facebook on car pages asking if anyone's selling hiding the fact they are traders.

Hybrids are targeted as the CAT has to be a lot more effective so contains more precious metal due to it working at a lower temperature.

Most cars will pass an MOT when warm with just the precat by the manifold so when people get their centre CATs stolen some just replace the section with a cheap straight pipe, where I live in London you hear quite a few bog standard japanese cars that sound subtly different and it's most likely due to the missing CAT making the exhaust sound more fruity.

[Hoofy]

Preemptively swap the cat out, I think.

[Aiminghigh123]

Hhmmmm my choice of car has just changed.

I was looking at RX400H but sounds more trouble that it’s worth. Just had our garages broken into on our block. 40 bicycles taken, mine being one of them, so no doubt car would be done. At least my old Saab Cat is right after the manifold very difficult to get to.

I know Saudi is a bit extreme but seriously if we started chopping people’s hands off crime would soon stop. Joke this country.

[Tom _M]

Blimey, didn’t think would be that much resale value in them. Can see why getting stolen then if can get a few of those a day at £400 then would make it worth their while.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Hoofy said:

Why Japanese cars?

I think it’s Toyota hybrids in general because of their hybrid engines. They use better cats because of the on/off nature of their powertrains they need better light off/warm up ability for emissions. So I think they either have two cat bricks or have a heavier coating of catalyst material. Making them more valuable.

[eltax91]

Every day is a school day around here. Out of interest, what’s the precious metal that ultimately gets stripped out of these cats going in to?

I do hope it’s not more cats, this perpetuating the cycle!

[Torquey]

Aiminghigh123 said:

I know Saudi is a bit extreme but seriously if we started chopping people’s hands off crime would soon stop. Joke this country.

Just for someone to walk past a kick the jack away would do.

Out of interest is anyone aware of a jack giving way and the tt being crushed under the car - whilst stealing a cat.

[Aiminghigh123]

Torquey said:

Just for someone to walk past a kick the jack away would do.

Out of interest is anyone aware of a jack giving way and the tt being crushed under the car - whilst stealing a cat.

If it’s 400h they are quite high. I can get under one without too much trouble if it failed could still get out although depends how it failed. My dads old jack had a slow leak so pump up quickly to get the stands under. Sudden failure I suppose would get some bounce.

[Hoofy]

Aiminghigh123 said:

Torquey said:

Just for someone to walk past a kick the jack away would do.

Out of interest is anyone aware of a jack giving way and the tt being crushed under the car - whilst stealing a cat.

If it’s 400h they are quite high. I can get under one without too much trouble if it failed could still get out although depends how it failed. My dads old jack had a slow leak so pump up quickly to get the stands under. Sudden failure I suppose would get some bounce.

For Prius thefts, they are jacking them up (obviously).

I guess if the jack failed, they'd sue you and claim on your insurance. You know how this country works.

[eltax91]

Hoofy said:

Aiminghigh123 said:

Torquey said:

Just for someone to walk past a kick the jack away would do.

Out of interest is anyone aware of a jack giving way and the tt being crushed under the car - whilst stealing a cat.

If it’s 400h they are quite high. I can get under one without too much trouble if it failed could still get out although depends how it failed. My dads old jack had a slow leak so pump up quickly to get the stands under. Sudden failure I suppose would get some bounce.

For Prius thefts, they are jacking them up (obviously).

I guess if the jack failed, they'd sue you and claim on your insurance. You know how this country works.

Time for a hooded vigilante to follow this aholes around lowering jacks down and speeding off in the (stolen) car the tts arrived in.

[Hoofy]

eltax91 said:

Hoofy said:

Aiminghigh123 said:

Torquey said:

Just for someone to walk past a kick the jack away would do.

Out of interest is anyone aware of a jack giving way and the tt being crushed under the car - whilst stealing a cat.

If it’s 400h they are quite high. I can get under one without too much trouble if it failed could still get out although depends how it failed. My dads old jack had a slow leak so pump up quickly to get the stands under. Sudden failure I suppose would get some bounce.

For Prius thefts, they are jacking them up (obviously).

I guess if the jack failed, they'd sue you and claim on your insurance. You know how this country works.

Time for a hooded vigilante to follow this aholes around lowering jacks down and speeding off in the (stolen) car the tts arrived in.

[InitialDave]

If you want a very clear statement of why people do this, watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1qQ1VYnNgM
(Skip to 7m30s for money talk)

Note: I shouldn't need to say this, but this guy isn't stealing cats, he's a salvage guy, explaining where they go and how much he gets.

[rallycross]

InitialDave said:

If you want a very clear statement of why people do this, watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1qQ1VYnNgM
(Skip to 7m30s for money talk)

Note: I shouldn't need to say this, but this guy isn't stealing cats, he's a salvage guy, explaining where they go and how much he gets.

Ok what does he say?