Catalytic converter options for 2001 Montero Limited

Chuck1

Active member
No.

Thieves do not sell catalytic converters- they cut them open to harvest and sell the precious materials inside.

From a search on a few sites they sell them whole to metal recyclers, apparently they use a few work arounds to thwart recording keeping.

Not one said they cut them open (my guess you don't what to breath those metals)
 

MTVR

Well-known member
From a search on a few sites they sell them whole to metal recyclers, apparently they use a few work arounds to thwart recording keeping.

Not one said they cut them open (my guess you don't what to breath those metals)

Well, you can believe Google, or you can believe a retired cop that has actually investigated plenty of these cases.

Individual cats are vehicle-specific and stamped with part numbers that increase the risk of someone like me being able to match up a particular cat to a particular theft case. So they cut them open with an angle grinder, remove the "bricks" from inside, ditch the shell, and then take the bricks to the metal recycling place and sell them for the platinum, palladium, and rhodium for meth money.

Most theft recoveries of this type happen as a by-product of another type of contact- for example if I see a tweaker-mobile cruising a residential neighborhood at three in the morning, often a known tweaker and/or a known tweaker-mobile that I know doesn't belong to that neighborhood, I'll stop them for any legally justifiable reason (license plate light out, touched a painted stripe, expired tags, etc.), and then when I walk up, I'll see a load of stolen stuff in the back. From there, I call my beat partners, and we all get on our computers and start trying to match the stolen property up with specific cases...
 
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PacS14

Adventurer
I've seen plenty of ads on offer up and craigslist that specifically say they buy catalytic converters here in Texas. No need to cut them open, etc usually $80+ a pop I had some questionable individual try to steal the cat from my Toyota T100 a few years back, something scared him and he left the tools under my truck, I noticed it the next xt morning when I started the truck and sounded like a I had a cammed V8 in the truck, I was like ******!? I thought my exhaust had broken, turned out he had removed the front two bolts and only one from the back, he was that close to finishing, and left me a ratchet a few sockets and channel locks ?
 

plh

Explorer
I've seen plenty of ads on offer up and craigslist that specifically say they buy catalytic converters here in Texas. No need to cut them open, etc usually $80+ a pop I had some questionable individual try to steal the cat from my Toyota T100 a few years back, something scared him and he left the tools under my truck, I noticed it the next xt morning when I started the truck and sounded like a I had a cammed V8 in the truck, I was like ******!? I thought my exhaust had broken, turned out he had removed the front two bolts and only one from the back, he was that close to finishing, and left me a ratchet a few sockets and channel locks ?

Battery powered sawzall is way quicker
 

PacS14

Adventurer
Yes but that's way louder than hand tools, in a suburban neighborhood they would be noticed right away, and here in Texas that's playing russian roulette on whether the home owner believes in lethal force or not.
 

Salonika

Monterror Pilot
Not sure if a Craigslist ad should be the benchmark for proof that it happens LOL. Think of all the other “legal” things floating around that place.
 

Chuck1

Active member
Like what, “legal” things

It is also illegal to add equipment, such as a turbocharger, that wasn't originally certified by the manufacturer for that make and model.

Lots of people do that and other things, to say its not happening is _____
 
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