Yeah it happened to my car like 6 or 8 years ago. I called around to salvage yards to try to buy a used exhaust. I needed basically everything from the manifold back due to where the thief made his cuts. Every yard told me that they aren't allowed to deal in used exhaust systems. I had to buy a new aftermarket exhaust or a new one from the dealer.
> Every yard told me that they aren't allowed to deal in used exhaust systems.
This is uniquely a CA issue, some after-market vendors wont even sip to CA/NY; however, most states will allow you to retrieve them from junked cars and will personally do that for you if you are willing to pay for their time--most have pick a part solutions as it's cheaper on labour to do it that way since dismantling/sorting/testing is very labour/time intensive.
I bought a few ex manifolds and cats for several cars from other states and shipped into CA when I worked in the auto industry, it just wasn't cheap.
Because good luck getting a decent ex manifold for a 1968 BMW 2002 or 1991 850i from Bavaria and you will soon be so sticker shocked you will pay whatever it takes to get it state-side, especially since one of those cars is smog-exempt and the dealer is charging you every hour your car is taking up a rack waiting for the RO to be completed.
>Every yard told me that they aren't allowed to deal in used exhaust systems.
This is a long standing emissions law thing that predates theft issues.
They want people to drop big coin on something (be that an exhaust system or a vehicle financed at a borderline usury rate from the local BHPH lot) that will be in compliance for awhile rather than slap a used cat on that will barely pass the test and go out of compliance shortly thereafter.
In my state, which has an annual emissions inspection, I have yet to meet a non-dealer mechanic who will not do everything possible to get a vehicle with a bad cat through the inspection process.
CA added new machines to testing that report every test to try to slow this down but every mechanic knows where to find the old machines that can run tests without reporting.
They just want to get you on the road and they’re damn good about it (and to be fair much of what they do to pass actually fixes real issues - i went from being a gross polluter to passing when the mechanic replaced the spark plug wire that was grounding out).
>CA added new machines to testing that report every test to try to slow this down but every mechanic knows where to find the old machines that can run tests without reporting.
>They just want to get you on the road and they’re damn good about it
Don't worry, the east coast has a solution for this harmonious alignment of business and customer incentives: 'safety' inspections
I took the training back when I lived in MA. The 3rd party that did the training (same contractor that did the computer systems at the time) basically said that the state's priority is clean air and that safety inspections only exist to make the combined safety+emissions license lucrative for a shop to hold and create an incentive not to subvert the interest of the state (by fudging emissions inspections) in favor of the customer (who the mechanic wants a good relationship with). Basically they want doing business via the state (by using your inspection license to make a bunch of work) to be more lucrative than any business you get helping customers dodge the state's interest. The lady running the training even started it by congratulating the class on "this lucrative next step in our careers and businesses" (which is somewhat hilarious because there is very little easy money in automotive repair).
That said, by the time I got out of that industry (mid 00s) they had stopped using tailpipe sniffers (at least in MA) and the economic realities of parts vs labor had more or less made any cheating beyond what the vehicle owner could do themselves irrelevant.
Something deeply ironic about emissions inspections in my state: my diesel VW is exempt from them. Some shops might do a cursory look to be sure you haven't deleted the particulate filter or the catalytic converter, but, really, most just make sure there is a pipe running from the exhaust manifold to the rear of the vehicle.
Last summer, I accompanied my son when he went across the state line to purchase a truck from a private seller. Said state has no inspection requirements. One of the seller's other trucks was a diesel conversion, and the exhaust was just routed up through the bonnet. Definitely no cat on that vehicle!
The emissions inspections things were important during the late 70s-80s when they were really badly done on the American cars (you could disconnect the "smog pump" and get a better running engine). This is where the diesel exemption came from - trucks had nothing much at all (and I don't think they started adding cats for quite awhile, as dirty diesel (non-low-sulfur) was very common and would kill a cat faster than curiosity).
Nowadays the real emission inspection is the computer in the car itself, continually monitoring and tracking what is going on.
A friend, who is a diesel mechanic, just went through the diesel emissions timeline with me very recently.
EGR valves -> DPFs -> DEF
I understand the necessity of these systems, but it seems like they are incredible fragile (the DPFs on VWs are prone to cracking and new ones are more than the average cat). I also understand why people do DPF deletes...
EGR and DPF on diesels are just trash and will be for the foreseeable future barring some yet unknown development in materials science. DEF, while another obnoxious consumable is pretty problem free by comparison
