hey guy my bonne needs a new catalytic converter and i was wondering what option would be better buying a new or getting a used one, let me know what u think

*** Moved from Introductions ~ Kevin ***

Depends. If your planning on doing bigger mods in the future, as far as performance goes, u may wanna get a hi flow cat, but if your just looking to replace a stock part, hit up the dealer ship or a junk yard and try and get you a OEM replacement. Keep in mind tho which ever route you take a used cat will have sustained a lot of use in its life so you may wanna get a new one either way.

How did you determine that you car needs a new cat?

OEM aftermarket cat'* are not the expensive. I would recommend going with a new rather than a used. With the used you don't know how much time you would have left before you would need to replace it.

Used ones around here are illegal. I believe it is an EPA thing. Buy a new one. I got one shipped for under $80, a Magnaflow.

What year is your car? magnaflow cats are fine until you hit 2000+

if you dont have an aft o2 sensor and dont want to put a cat in put a straight pipe in

I wonder the same thing. did a tech tell you you needed a new cat? fail smog? Tweaking o2 sensors? loss of performance? loss of exhaust flow? blow a hole through your muffler?

We wanna see if we can save you money.

yea the guy at auto zone said that my catalytic converter was clogged

How exactly did he determine the cat was clogged? If the engine starts to loose power at higher RPMs that could be a clogged cat. Remove the front O2 sensor and run the engine that way. If the cat is clogged this will let the exhaust out. It will however be rather loud.

The guy at AZ probably read an 02 sensor code and gave him a one size fits all description.