Catalytic Converter Repairs in California

Ok so after much research I found out that besides the ridiculous amout the dealership wants to charge you for this, there is only "1" company approved by the state to sell an aftermarket catalytic converter for my '06 Taco. Now tell me, what does a company have to do to get the entire state of California on LOCK? I don't know but I'm inclined to think that whatever it was.....it was worth everypenny. The only problem is....the part has not gotten the nod by the state yet...?!? My tags are due by mo months end...? My chk eng light is "ON"...what are my options? Pay double at the dealership or can I get an extension or something till they they get off their fat asses and make a decision? F#*K!

 

A company has to submit their cat to CARB for testing along with all their testing and then hope the econazi's approve it. Many just say forget it and sell their replacement cats to the rest of the world and leave that miserable cat hating state to dangle in the wind. Yes, their are a lot of customers but they come with a hell of a headache called CARB.

That particular headache named CARB wanted Toyota to test my 2014 FJC in Michigan after I had owned it for a year or so to see if it passed emissions.

 

What do you want? Do you just want to pass smog or are you looking for a more performance type of cat? (if that even exist)

When they tested my 2011, they just plugged the tester into the obd port and tested the truck. So I would imagine you could put any cat on it. As long as the truck runs well and does not throw a code you should be fine.
Besides that, the only way to know if a part is carb legal is to look for the carb sticker. Does anyone crawl under the truck and look for a carb sticker on the cat?

 

I had the P0420 code. It turned out to be the donut gasket connecting the cat to the Y pipe.

 

If in fact I.need a new cat then, yes. But, I don't want to have to be bent over by the dealership. I saw a post regarding a guy that had to replace his and they charged him $3,000.00! HELL NO!

 

I hope that's all it is. Because the alternatives just don't fit into my budget at this time. Plus, 3G's on an '06 with 164,000 miles...? I'll would have to give that some more thought. I just put "CATACLEAN" in my tank last night. With don't know if it's just snake oil but I do know it cost me $25.00 at AutoZone! IT BETTER DO SOMETHING!!!!

 

camelback Toyota phoenix az best prices on manifold/cat. I paid $623 for manifold/cat AF sensor and gaskets, local Toyota was $1257 for just the manifold/cat.

 

Both sides were 623?

I know a counter guy and the best he could do was 12ish for the pair

 

12ish for the pair sounds about right.... unfortunatly you are stuck with buying OEM cats.

That stated, are you sure its the cat? Lots of other things can cause that issue.

 

Well, I put in the Cataclean and had the code cleared. Sure enough, the light came back on after 40-50 miles. Whatever is causing the code...it's still a problem. When I spoke with the muffler shop they had been told that the fix would be approved by the state of Ca in 2 weeks. Great right? We'll see.......to be continued.....

Thanks for the reply I really apreciate all of the comments and suggestions.

"Taco Owners United"

 

that was passenger side,

 

Did you ever look at the donut gaskets at the Y pipe?

 

If your cat went out there is an underlying reason why. A cat converter will last a very very long time at 14.7 air fuel ratio. I highly suggest that you investigate your running condition before you go replacing the cat. It would be mini financial suicide not to do so. The last thing you want is to replace the cat without verifying proper running condition, otherwise the cat will fail again in short order.

You are stuck with OEM since you live here in California. Sorry.

 

being that they no longer look at anything on the truck and just plug it into your odb2 port, you could try getting some normal cats and weld them in. once you have the skit plating on you cant see it anyways. just make sure its the correct cat.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-2005-2015-4-0l-v6-stock-header-w-1st-cats.504975/

 

Do Taco cats have O2 sensors? Maybe a universal CARB cat can be fit by a muffler shop. MagnaFlow sells universal CARB cats on Amazon, see part #s 447205, 447206, 448004. Although on their website, they show no CARB cats for Tacos, but I don't see a link for universal cats either.

 

Take 30 minutes and get under your truck to check out your exhaust. If anything I would unbolt the exhaust before the muffler and check gaskets and such. I gutted my secondaries and got a check engine light cause the exhaust wasn't seated right at the flange before the secondary cat and o2 sensor.

If it is your cats, get after those oem headers asap