Hi Everyone,

I just found out I need to get a new catalytic converter, and am so confused about which ones are legal vs not. I can buy an OEM but the $750 is going to be painful.

If anyone had a similar problem or knows anything please let me know.

Thanks in advance

 

My first recommendation would be to buy a used, stock OEM cat from someone on the forums. Check out the classifieds section on here, k20a.org, or ephatch.com. This is a cheap/simple solution, and it's guaranteed to fit. Might not be guaranteed to last forever like a new unit would be, but hey it's 1/5 the price so why not?

Any cat should be "legal" so long as it's the correct size. Even high-flow cats should be okay, but I wouldn't recommend that for various reasons.

I'm assuming your car is stock and you intend to keep it that way, but you're from Cali so who knows.

 

Oh, and welcome to Honda-Tech. Thanks for posting in the correct forum.

 

Anything that isn't OEM is illegal. High Flow cats included...

 

Yeah that's what the law states, but how strictly is that enforced? If I go to NAPA and buy a replacement cat, now it's illegal?

Emission laws are stupid.

 

Wrong. Anything that isn't OEM-equivalent is not smog legal. A replacement cat you would buy at your local NAPA store is perfectly legal.

 

i hate living in cali...

 

FINALLY someone admits it!

 

Hahaha okay well you know what i was getting at...

 

You non Cali boys need to step back. Here in Cali any car that is OBD2 must have either an OEM cat or a CARB approved cat. If you do not get one of these you will fail the visual part of the smog test. (CARB approved cats have an EO number stamped on them.)

 

this is why u get family from a diff state and get tags from there while living in cali and do whatever you want to your car lol

 

Nope doesn't work because if they catch you multiple times they are gonna hassle you to either get out of ca or get state tags, plus having a CA ID isn't going to make your arguement any better either unless your military and thats the only exception...

 

yeah, Cali requires OEM cat, freakin' sucks bro...

 

thats rough, some ******** huh lol. well get mexico tags or something idk and id from there haa