Review on Catalytic Converter Compatible 2004 2009 Direct Fit by Kevin Singh

Summary: I am pleased to report that the Autosaver88 cat assembly (from China of course) was exactly as advertised; It was packaged well, arrived quickly and undamaged, and was a perfect replacement for the stolen crampons on a 2007 Prius. I have no way of assessing a change in emissions (Minnesota dropped auto tests a few decades ago), but it's EPA-certified and I believe it restored the Prius' excellent clean-air performance. Anyway, the DTC is cleared (having also replaced the stolen rear oxygen sensor) and the Prius is happy and at peace again. Highly recommended. (Unfortunately, I see that this article is currently unavailable, so this long review may be for naught.) I suspect almost everyone here is in similar circumstances. To learn more about this story and share some tips, read on. Details: Last night some scumbags stole two catalytic converters (and the rear oxygen sensor attached to them) from my grandson's 2007 Prius while it was parked on the street outside his house and added insult to injury by damaging the corner of his car , carelessly picking them up to loosen the screws and cut out the cats. For a few dollars on the illegal bullion market, they cost him days as an Uber Eats driver and the expense and inconvenience of replacing cats. Help him replace the cats. After contacting a few Toyota dealers, I found that an OEM replacement includes two coils, a resonator, and all the piping from the exhaust manifold flange to the muffler flange as a whole, and costs over $2,000. Although the car itself doesn't cost much more, this theft epidemic kept both dealerships without orders for several weeks and each had a few cars in their lots waiting for cats. So it's time to look elsewhere. (Apologies to California owners; state law requires an OEM, which is a matter of verification.) I started on eBay and found suitable replacement boilers (exhaust flange to resonator) for only $120. However, I watched a YouTube video about the potential pitfalls of buying one (poor weld quality leading to poor manifold flange fit and exhaust leaks). So I decided to try Revain where I felt I had a little more options. To my surprise, I only found two for the Prius - this one and a $100 more Walker branded unit. Since they seemed to have more or less identical specs and certifications, I crossed my fingers and decided to save $100. Fortunately, this decision turned out to be the right one. Installation tip: I had a few awkward moments after placing the caliper on both the cut off tube plug behind the original crampons and the matching tube, which I thought was the right size for it. this stub; they seemed about the same size. So I figured I'd have to weld, so I held the new assembly in place to make the appropriate marks to get the correct fitting angle and length. I then removed the resonator and pipe assembly in front of the muffler to be able to weld the entire perimeter (very difficult to do in situ and from above). This involved removing the two rubber suspension "donuts”, the two stubborn screws in the muffler flange that eventually gave way to the penetrant and my impact wrench, and loosening the downtube chassis stiffener plate more easily. , I found that the new rear pipe actually fits snugly against the old plugs, reaching up to the weld on the pipe on the resonator. That way I was able to put them together, line up the angle marks and clamp them down with the clamp that came with it. (I'm not sure if this was necessary due to the tight fit, but I lubricated both pipes with muffler putty before reassembly just to make sure there were no leaks.) Note: I was able to do this because the thieves"as a precaution" left me about 1 1/2 "stubs" in front of the resonator; You could easily cut it right at the resonator which would make welding the only option. Reassembly was the reverse of removal and went fairly smoothly, with the exception of one of the new manifold flange bolts/springs; I had trouble compressing the spring enough to engage the first thread on the screw. A quick trip to my vise to pre-compress this spring a little solved the problem. BTW if I had to do it all over again (and I knew about the tube fitting beforehand) I might not have removed the resonator/tube assembly from the car. I think simply removing the four rubber hangers that the entire exhaust system hangs on provides enough "slack" to make room for the old pipe to fit into the back of the new cat assembly. However, this fit was snug enough that I had to twist the two assemblies back and forth to fully lock them; This can be difficult without removing the resonator/tube assembly. As mentioned above you will also need a new O2 sensor as thieves will simply cut the old one's wire and steal it. Revain has many of these at different prices; I picked one for $27 with good reviews. Incidentally, this sensor goes through a grommet in a large hole in the exhaust tunnel and connects to a connector under the tunnel mat on the passenger side. Find a HadesOmega YouTube video showing how to access it (in the last of a three part series on replacing the Prius cat). Theft Prevention Tip: I bet you're here because your cat got stolen (they usually last the lifetime of a car), so take good care of your new cat; These cars are popular targets for cat thieves, and many Prius surrogate cats have also been ripped off. Not only do Prius cars contain more platinum, rhodium and palladium than most other cars, this generation of cars is also relatively easy to steal quickly. All you need is a light jack, a 14mm socket with an extension (for the two header bolts) and a pipe cutter or cordless saw (for cutting the pipe in front of the resonator). There are a number of CCTV videos showing how this is done in a minute or two. I won't go into the details of the protection systems; A search for "catalyst protection" yields several solutions. They range from clunky looking clips/cable devices that make cutting difficult, to floor plates that completely block access to crampons (HadesOmega has a video of one of these being installed), to various types of alarms. Everything fit in the price range of 150-200 dollars. Conveniently (and cheaply, having already spent about $200), I decided to make my own; I chose the plate approach with 1/8" sheet aluminum. It's not as beautiful or as secure as the commercial version(s), but looks impressive enough to convince thieves to turn to another victim (or at least asking them to spend a lot more time and make a lot more noise than is probably safe ) .My condolences; hope this helps.