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'03 Type-S that needs a new cat. Opinions on OEM vs. aftermarket?

727 views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Pserkyt 
#1 ·
Hi folks,

I have an '03 Type-S and the flanges on the cat are rusted and borked. It's already been macgyver'd once and it's past saving at this point.

I'm in Massachusetts, so a cat is mandatory even if the car is exempt from thorough emissions testing during inspections.

Any opinions/experiences on OEM vs. aftermarket cats? The OEM part is ungodly expensive and I'd rather not drop the cash on it unless I have to.

Magnaflow makes a direct fit model, but I'm concerned about codes/CEL using anything other than OEM.

Appreciate your time and insight.

Thanks.
 
#2 ·
I'm not the most experienced on this car specifically, but if you're willing to spend 250-300 on a magnaflow, I would recommend just getting a full header. You can get a DC header on eBay for like 320~ more or less. For the CEL issue, you can just get an O2 spacer. They're L shaped, you screw it onto the cat, and then screw the O2 onto the spacer, kills the CEL. Comes in one piece instead of 2. Seen it tons of times on these forums.
 
#5 ·
So glad I live in Florida, no emissions testing whatsoever - I do whatever I want :) Perhaps find one at a junkyard? Then after your emissions testing take it back off and go catless, cut out the dead cat and weld on straight pipe, and save your junkyard catted exhaust for the next test so you don’t use it up. OR borrow a friends exhaust and give it back when you are done :) My car came with the skunk2 exhaust which seems to have a high flow cat with the secondary O2 deleted, which sounds amazing and I would highly recommend it.


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#7 ·
I'm a HUGE car guy. I love to work on my stuff, and i love taking things apart, but i don't think anyone would wanna go through the trouble of swapping a cat out every time they had to go get the emissions test. That just sounds like too much work lol.
 
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