no catalytic converter fine/epa

B

bazgti

Well-known member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
1,420
Location
nth balwyn, victoria
my cat is stuffed in my 205 and i was toying around with the idea of taking it off and fitting a bit of pipe in its place .i thought id ring around to see what the fines were if caught.
wow its $6000 for the first time and they impound your car the second time if you are caught again and have not fixed it.i rang vic roads who put me on to the EPA who are the people who actually fine you.its an enviroment breach by polouting the atmosphere so the nice fella tells me and the fine is high to discourage people from taking off the cat.
i know the chances of getting caught are remote but somehow i think ill scrape the money together,knowing my luck id get buckled straight away.
$350 for fixed cat on the car seems better than $6000 not on the car
however if you have a car that was personally imported [not through car dealer]by you or the previous own er and it did not come with a cat when originally manufactured[like early 205's in europe]AND HAS GOT AN AUSTRALIAN COMPLIANCE PLATE. itdoes not have to have one .IF YOU HAVE THE ORIGINAL EXHAUST.if you have had a replacement exhaust in the time you have had it in australia,you must fit one.
interesting aye-BAZZ
 
buddy baz, if you are interested in getting a good deal on a cat PM me, im probs gonna do a commode cat job with mine (only cause i get it cheap, very good friend owns a MR muffler:))
 
jester_fu said:
Yeah... when the cat packed it in on my Mi, i asked the exhaust guy for a piece of pipe. He's got a good sense of humor and replied "Yep... no problem... $20k for the modification and $20 for the pipe". The EPA in NSW will fine the supplier/exhaust guy $20 000 for removing a cat and breaching EPA regulations. $6k is getting of pretty light in comparison!!
Click to expand...
It's up to $22K for individuals and $44K for business now (PER OFFENCE), don't know anyone who actaully coped these size fines, but who want's to risk it? For the 50th time .. YES you can get fined. :rolleyes:

- XTC -
 
Aussiefrogs PA System

*ding* *ding* *ding*

Haakon, please attend thread 17177. Haakon to thread 17177, thankyou.

:whip:
 
I removed mine on the mi16, made it a bit louder but power wise there was f'all difference.

As for the fines, spoke to the EPA about and couldn't get a difinitive answer...told me it was illegal to remove but wasn't illegal not to have one.
All the fines I was told about were rumours from mechanics and exhaust shops.

In the end I fitted a cat along with 2 resonators, 2 new mufflers and smaller piping.....and yet it still didn't pass the noise test :headbang:
 
OK.
For the last time when i rang the EPA and the RTA i was quoted that if i were to remove my Cat on my S3 GTi the fine would be 250 on the spot fine. I then rang again to make sure, i got a different person on the phone and asked the question. They also said it would be a 250 fine. So i sadi are you sure its not anything like 10k. He said now way. So i said can i have your name, so i wrote his name the time i called and the date and said if i get caught i will call you and tell them that you told me this. He said fine by him.

Cam. And im on my own wagon if i must be. :nownow:
Let the games begin.... :evil: :evil: :2cents:
 
From a Vic Pol point of view, there are a smorgasboard of fines you could recieve:

1. Fail to comply with ADR's $200
2. Unapproved alteration to vehicle $200
3. Intefere with vehicle equipment $150

+ a handball to the EPA for fines/testing of your ENTIRE vehicle's emmision system - At YOUR cost (I think)

...all you need is someone to look under the car or give the cat casing a tap and your looking at a canary and a few fines to make your day...
 
Only today I did a psych test where there was a question : "Do you think most people would do the right thing even if there was no chance of being caught doing the wrong thing?"

Like the fool that I am, I answered "Yes" since I have some foolish neverending belief in the greater goodness of humanity.

Now we all have opinions on the validity of certain laws i.e speeding. But c'mon can anyone here be honest to themselves and still think there's nothing wrong with not following this smallest of measures to at least slightly reduce screwing up the environment? Who cares about the fines, let's use a 'cat' just because it's the right thing to do. :2cents:
 
so, in your opinion ....what is a greater environmental sin?
Driving an old 504 that might be running on three cylinders and very rich OR lets say a late mi16 MINUS cat.........Now tell me,....if it makes sense? But you r right.....since the performance gain is FA in a modern vehicle (ecu controlled), it really is wiser both environmentally and hasslewise to replace with "working" unit....I say "working" as I m sure at this stage there would be thousands of cars out there with cat cons that are doing FA in protecting the environment.....especially for those short trips.....I for example drive to work and its less than a kay away.....sinfull really....but its been a long time since somebody has seen me walking (ie form of transport)...re my 205 gti not having a cat...well I don t feel to bad about it as it was only once or twice a week transport....and lately it hasn t been doing much of that either...



cheers


dino
 
I don't know..I personally don't think it can be rationalised like that. One doesn't make the other any more or less wrong. It all depends on the individual..I'm not trying to get on my high horse though it may have come across like that. If there are people who genuinely feel that there's nothing wrong with actively removing their car and can justify it to themselves, good for them, go ahead and just worry about the penalty if caught. Maybe I'm naive again, but I just believe that most people, if they actually think about it, would probably consider it wrong, in which case it would be great if they didn't go ahead with it because they themselves believe it is wrong and not because of any penalty being the deterrent.
 
I remember reading something once about cat's, it said somothing like a faulty cat produces 7 times more pollution than if it was removed. Don't know if this is true or not but food for thought.

Sounds like the EPA and RTA have the same type of staff working for them and none of them seem to have the true answers. I know of someone that was fined $10k for not having one fitted, but the car was highly modded and begging to be defected. I don't think taking an operators name etc would hold up in court, even if they found the person who gave the information it's their ignorance against your's, you'd lose.

To throw a cat amongst the pigeons I wonder what your friendly insurance company would say if you made a claim and they discovered you have removed your cat? I know people have been refused claims of had there claims reduced due to aftermarket wheels etc.
 
In the UK it was a case of whether the car originally had a cat when it came out. In early times whilst it was mandatory over here, it was optional over there, so if the car has a cat & the cat buggers up, they take it in for an MOT & the tester looks up his book and it says "optional" so has no cat so no problem; it's 'legal' even if that year model all had them fitted. Crazy I know but they all reckon it's correct.
Out here we seem to have the problem of EPA & RTA having authority over it. This creates a dilemma. If one spots a problem, he'll refer it to the other in the age old tradition of "Yes Minister" style buck passing. This of course creates work and in the same well honoured tradition, this must be avoided at all costs.
Queensland EPA are possibly the slackest in the Country so I could imagine up here if they read in a book that all cars were supposed to have a cat, they'd be looking for Persian & Siamese. They don't even respond to calls when there's someone dozing mangroves (sorry they did but it was 2 years later) and recently after a lot of hassling by a greenies group, fined a woman for poisoning a heap of mangroves in a Heritage listed park, so anyones chances of being caught by this lot is remote if not impossible.
At the end of the day though, what is this achieving? As Andreas says, no increase in power and possibly rendering the rest of the exhaust system partially ineffective if as is the case with some brands, that the downline mufflers are different on a Cat equipped car to one that isn't.
As far as the involvement of the Constabulary goes, I'm sure as Richard has pointed out, that if you found a copper with a grudge against you, he would simply refer to the course subject normally part of Academy training, usually taken by some grouchy old Sargeant who has missed on promotion for years which basically instructs the trainees on how to be an arsehole once they are on the beat if they see someone they don't like, in which case the lack of cat (if they even twig it) is just another thing to add to their list. :wink2:

Alan S
 
cam85 said:
Cam. And im on my own wagon if i must be. :nownow:
Let the games begin.... :evil: :evil: :2cents:
Click to expand...
You - some guy (public servant) on the phone backing you.
Them - an act of parliament.

READ THE ACT !!!! Already given the link once. :rolleyes:

- XTC -

YES it's often the case of what's enforced if different to what's in the act, if you want to risk it, fine (no pun intended :) ), but the FACT is you can be faced with fines much greater then $250.
 
I wonder how Mini Cats would be considered in this context? In a vehicle with a
catalytic converter that is deemed unsatisfactory because the downstream oxygen sensor is not happy with the level of reduction in pollutants, a Mini cat cleans up the gas going to the oxy sensor itself, and keeps the car happy. Not in the spirit of the law I know but when cruise ships can burn bunker fuel and even modern diesels are churning out black smoke, you have to wonder. ​
 
How long does a catalytic converter last for, anyway ?
If it was me, I'd just go to a wrecker and buy a secondhand one. Often they're an easy bolt-on.
 
The thought police now have your IP address as you asked the question on the internet.
VPNs just show them who they should really follow

Guys in Black Pajamas will be along shortly.

Better fit that cat ASAP 200.987.458.113
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top