Why are catalytic converters so expensive?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
11,526
Location
OH
I had to have the one on my Corolla replaced and it was almost $600. That's nuts!
 
My aunt had to have one replaced on her 02 Accord a few years ago. It was double the cost of yours. The one on her car was stolen when she went out of town. She had just dropped her comprehensive insurance so she had to pay it out of pocket.

What kind of cat did you get? Precious metals drives the cost up.
 
They are full of precious metals... The catalyst used in the converter is mostly a precious metal such as platinum, palladium and rhodium. Platinum is used as a reduction catalyst and as an oxidation catalyst. Although platinum is a very active catalyst and widely used, it is very expensive and not suitable for all applications.

Still, $600 seems a little steep considering labor was likely only around an hour.
 
Platinum $978.85/ounce
Paladium $907.80/ounce
Rhodium $1,100/ounce

Those are the metals used in a cat. The better quality of the cat, the more of these metals they have.

$600 is actually pretty cheap for a cat.
 
Last edited:
What type of cat is it? Some cars have a cat as part as the exhaust manifold which makes it $$$. Some cars have a more expensive cat if you happen to have California emissions or emissions some states follow like California like PA as an example. Some vehicle manufactures will sell some such cars in Federal emissions states like Ohio at a profit to say an oil refinery in Maryland so the refinery can pollute a little more and not need to spend a jillion dollars updating the refinery.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
And that's why the salvage yard cars all have missing catalytic converters.


It's the first thing that the yard removes when they get it. The wrecker driver picking up the vehicle will inspect to see if the cat(s) are on the car and deduct money if there missing.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
And that's why the salvage yard cars all have missing catalytic converters.

I was at my local metal salvage place last Saturday and they were offering between $10 and $50 for one, depending on the model.
 
There's a big difference in price and quality between OEM cats and aftermarket cats. The aftermarkets ones don't have as much precious metal and I guess they wouldn't meet the 8yr/80K warranty federally required with OEM cats.
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
I was at my local metal salvage place last Saturday and they were offering between $10 and $50 for one, depending on the model.


My last trip to the salvage yard resulted in some blood being spilled because someone got to the under side of the car before I did with a Sawzall and left the exhaust tubing with a very sharp edge.
 
I junked a older Honda Civic last weekend and got $100 from the scrap place we deal with at work. It had a "man a verter" on it or manifold/converter
 
Originally Posted By: grampi
I had to have the one on my Corolla replaced and it was almost $600. That's nuts!


Yeah, you should have gotten an aftermarket one. Depending on the year, probably around $250-$300 for the converter and as someone else said about an hour of labor. Sounds like either you got a factory one which should last longer than an aftermarket one. For instance a Walker muffler just has a 25k warranty. Not sure how long the OEM warranty would be, but an OEM part would have been designed to last at least 80k. I think the theory with the EPA is that 25k is ok, by the time the original converter wore out and a 2nd one put in and also wore out, the car would be dead by then. Or maybe they won't even have emissions testing at that stage. In my state, they don't even check emissions if the car is more than 15 years old, they just check for safety. Before I got rid of my Taurus, it had over 200k and still had the original cats.
 
I told you so... I got rid off my 02 Corolla back in 2010 because its catalic converter issues every year that would be triggered by an oil leak on engine cilinders
 
Because shops and retail parts stores mark up the parts so high, especially on cats! Also, it depends on how the exhaust was designed on your particular car. Some cars have the cat along with a long pipe, and some have it built into the manifold; both of those designs cost a lot more.

If you bought it on your own and took it to the shop for them to install, you could've saved a lot of money.

Online, like on Rock Auto, a converter with a whole pipe attached, or one with an integrated manifold, can go for $300-400. A converter that has neither of those attached, and is just a cat with a flange attached on each end, is usually under $200, sometimes as low as $100. Then there are universal cats that have to be welded on, which cost even less.

The precious metals used are expensive, but that is only part of the story.

Federal-spec cats are required to have a 2-year/25k warranty on catalytic performance and a 5-year/50k warranty on structural integrity. California requires CARB-approved cats to have a 5-year/50k warranty on catalytic performance.
 
I have used Cal legal universal cats for $110 installed and pass smog on several different vehicles. In Ca the non universal ones can be crazy expensive compared to the non CA, NY etc ones. On my sons Subaru the cat is part of the header exhaust system costing $400 plus install
 
I did, a week or two ago. $930 for my Sienna.

Originally Posted By: Chris142
try pricing the California version!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top