CA People...Still Need Cat Help
 

Ok...for those who remember, I recently failed smog due to a non funtional cat. Needless to say, I need a new one...and I'm not paying stealership prices for an OEM cat. I've found an assload of conflicting information. I posted on Honda-Tech...people said Catco and Carsound were CARB legal. I emailed Summit Racing (who sells catco), and they said Catco is CARB legal. Here's the tricky part. On the Carsound site, it says not legal for use in CA on OBD2 vehicles....says the same thing for Catco in the Summit catalog. Does anyone know for sure what the deal is? I'm at my wit's end right about now....TIA.

EDIT: I've also looked at the ARB website for CA, has a listing of CARB exempt parts and numbers....all I've seen for OBD2 cats were for GM trucks/vans.

Why don't you just buy a used cat from someone? I wouldn't bother with an aftermarket one just to be safe. Did you fail because of an aftermarket cat or because your OEM cat wasn't working? I hate CA smog standards. I am going to have a big hassle trying to get my turbo GSR to pass.

My OEM cat wasn't working. I don't want to buy a used cat, because I want to make sure it will pass.

I'd buy a California OBDII compliant universal cat then have a muffler shop weld me up some flanges, but hey I'm not you.

http://www.car-sound.com/catalog/universal/430.aspx

That is probably the best option. Sounds like a great idea and it should be as cheap, if not cheaper, than a used OEM cat.

Were you running the Zex kit with an OEM cat? Just curious!

It also has a nice little warranty that covers the ever so popular CEL code 67.

Yes I was running the OEM cat on the nitrous, only ran 2 bottles. Nitrous has no effect on catalytic converters. Usually it's excessive unburned fuel, coolant, or oil that ruin cats. Either that or the catalyst gets knocked loose. I haven't taken mine down yet to see the problem, but I have bottomed out quite a few times.

I think I finally found somewhere to get the Carsound EPA cat. None of the muffler or performance shops around here sell them....after stating they sell Magnaflow products...horseshit. Anyways, I think I'm going to get one from Kteller.com. For $155 I can get a 2.25" high flow EPA/CARB OBD2 approved cat with the O2 bung and flanges welded on, in the length for my application. Probably just gonna end up with that.

Well I've pretty much became an expert here. I know you remember all the shit I went through. Oh yeah, I ended up having to pay the fine too. Regardless of my correction. Apparently a CARB violation is considered a NON-correctable violation. Anyways, last I heard from a muffler shop owner, december 04. He carried aftermarket OBD2 cats, but they were not CARB approved for use in CA. He stated that there has not been an OBD2 cat for use in CA that has been approved. This guy actually told me, look dude I ain't gonna take your money, it sounds like you have a problem that should be covered under a warranty and it was. An 80k emissions warranty. Now it all depends on who is looking at your car too. Most places just stick a mirror under there and see if it's there. They're not trying to make love to the damn thing. Even at the BAR Referee station, I watched every move the guy made, and even he just did the mirror thing.
My brother has a 96 RS. Is that OBD1 or 2? Cause he bought a factory re-manufactuered cat and that worked great for him and was 3 bills installed. So that it a possibility too. Also the heat shield on the stock cat comes off on both sides with a 10mm socket. It might be possible to install that around an aftermarket cat to give it more of a stock look if that is what your concerned with in addition to it being functional as well.
Hope all this helped. Good luck man!!!

The aftermarket cats come with heat shields...and the new carsounds are EPA/CARB OBD2 approved for CA...win-win situation.

Side note, when I got my CARB ticket for my intake and went to the BAR ref, I didn't have to pay the fine...just the fee for the smog and court processing.