I need help with my catalytic converter....

[bigmerle]

Well.....where do I start.....my lovely CEL came on last week on my 01 A6 Avant so I had a friend scan for codes....it turned out my cat was bad...no big deal....i thought i will go ahead and get my exhaust done....They put it up on the lift and tell me they will go ahead redo the pipes and put high flow cats on it.....well this was to only find out that i have two other cars tucked up in the front of her......I called a audi performance shop and they said they dont make aftermarket replacements for them that i have to go to the stealership.......does anyone have any advice on what i can or should do.....right now i really cant afford stealership prices!!! HELP!!!!!

[oc-drop]

you have to replace the pre-cats? (on the downpipes) they aren't very prone to going out like the main cats... you should be good just replacing those main ones.

are they waiting to do the exhaust, or did they do it already?

[bigmerle]

Yea, they held off on doing the exhaust.....The exhaust shop told me that it would be what you called the pre cats that would throw the code....he said the secondary cats are not even reconized by the ecu? Does that sound right? If it is the "pre cats" how much are they to replace or is there a way to bypass them?

[oc-drop]

personally i think they are just trying to get more $$ out of you

tell them just to put the cats on and let you go or find someone else; it's not like they are "already in there so might as well do it" - those downpipes are a bitch iirc

[skiroad'r]

Most dealers selectively ignore this rule, but Federal emission laws require a warranty beyond the original manuf. warranty. IIFC I think it's 80,000 miles but not sure.

[bigmerle]

that wouldnt work out for me unfortunatly i just hit the 150k mark :(

[Barrito17]

If you have a 2.7t then go with the piggie pipes rom Vast Performance. Way cheaper than going with the stealership and will give you close to 20mph increase if ur chipped.

[xpl0sive]

why don't you just get them to take put your existing precats, gut them, as in scrape all the honeycomb shells from inside of them, and then install the high flow cats and relocate the secondary O2 sensor behind the main hi-flo cats. that way u get performance and your CEL goes away

[bigmerle]

If you have a 2.7t then go with the piggie pipes rom Vast Performance. Way cheaper than going with the stealership and will give you close to 20mph increase if ur chipped.

unfortunatly it isnt the 2.7tt.....wish they had those here for the Avant

[bigmerle]

why don't you just get them to take put your existing precats, gut them, as in scrape all the honeycomb shells from inside of them, and then install the high flow cats and relocate the secondary O2 sensor behind the main hi-flo cats. that way u get performance and your CEL goes away

Hmmm...wonder if that would work?