Catalytic Converter Shootout in Houston

I was being a bit sarcastic. Used to go down to Baja back in the mid 70's to fish, drink beer, and watch the 500 and 1000.

 

Yep, Apple phones suck. Made for $50 and sold for $1K...

 

They run great until Apple secretly slows them down in correlation with the next models release..

https://www.businessinsider.com/app...ement-2017-iphone-intentional-slowdown-2020-3

 

.....and the expensive batteries that "prematurely" fail.....but CarPlay is a must to have in a truck. LOL That being said to stay on track....our Houston lab's mobile onsite trailer just got robbed again. The mobile onsite crew dropped it off at the lab parking lot. Went to their motel room and came back in the morning and a $100K+ of test equipment was gone... Houston is not on my to visit list at all. Besides.....the Astros cheat to win.....

 

ThermoFisher is one of our calibration clients. PGM's in Cats make gold and silver prices peanuts..............


https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/m...ry-from-spent-catalytic-converters-using-xrf/

 

FTW…
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/in...-behind-his-truck/6YUZBKHFBRELBLQ4UT7VR645WA/

 

I'd be pissed but not that pissed......

 

ahh if they’re being shipped over the pond, this explains why houston is a hot spot for CATS! The port of houston is where it’s being shipped from internationally. The heads of this operation would have to be running things from port of houston.

 

Yep, and LA/Seattle both have large ports and are much closer to C^^^a than Houston. LA and Seattle have cat theft issues....

 

New option for Tundras. The Blaster.

 

Sure, but with limited enforcement resources you can either address the symptom or the root of the issue. Symptoms are easy, and in my opinion lazy. I have several friends who are cops in Houston and they’re simply spread way too thin to deal with it.

 

Actually... No

 

Mine got stolen almost 2 months ago. To add insult to injury, local dealers were estimating a 2 to 4 month wait for OEM replacement cats. Another person on here said he had been waiting 4 months for his.

 

They have Tundra Catalytic converter shields at Autonation Toyota Gulf Freeway. I believe they are $500 in the parts department, saw them today while I was getting my oil drain plug gasket.

 

Better yet, do away with the cats all together, or make it the manufacturer’s responsibly to protect them, after all Fort Knox don’t store the gold outside the vault.

 

500? That one hell of a mark-up by the dealer.

 

My 2014 is at the dealership right now waiting for cats to come in.
They said something about these shields, I already told them I wanted one.

 

If that was my truck I would clear coat that bullet hole and not have it repaired.

 

If they have them in stock, they have the advantage.
Other places I've seen is a pretty decent wait for shipping.
That would long enough for my cats to get stolen again.

 

I would be delighted to pay $500, my coworker converters were stolen twice in 1 week plus he said its a 4-5 month wait for OEM converters from Toyota

 

Have a machine/fab shop save you a worn out bandsaw blade. Take the blade to a muffler shop and have it cut into pieces and welded to the tubes. Sawzall blades won't cut it anymore! Cheaper, easier, lighter than the shield and you can service the tranny easily too.

 

I agree with saw blades ,I mean if they are under there cutting out the cats how much harder is to cut 2 bolts on 1 side of shield and drop it ? Or cut all 4 bolts and take shield too. Shield just seems to be a small thing for sawsall, and if they take it your out another 500, Or take some old banding material and wrap twice around each end of both cats and run multiple self tappers into frame and cats , they won't know where to start cutting. Or just JB WELD the banded wrapped area to cat and screw to frame.

 

That sounds like it might take a while, I have a 1/4" thick aluminum shield on mine to cut weight.

 

I don't have time for all that BS, I'll take the shield.
I don't give a f(k how much it weighs.
I need something done NOW, so when I do get my truck back, they won't get stolen again in the place I have to park 5 days a week for 12 hours a day.

You guys feel free to weld a shitload of saw blades to your exhaust system, muffler to manifold.
Make sure you weld them good so they don't fall off and damage your, or someone else's, vehicle.

More than likely if these pieces of sh!t look under a truck and see a shield, they will move on to the next vehicle.
They aren't going to take the time to cut bolts off.

Welding saw blades to the pipes isn't going to do shit to deter the initial cutting.
I highly doubt they are going to survey your setup before the start cutting, especially at night.
"Oh darn, these pipes have saw blades on them", please.

These assholes don't want to be under a vehicle for more than a minute.
They cut both my pipes and only took one side, the other side left hanging by a rubber hanger.
With the alarm going off, they hauled ass instead of working the pipe off the hanger.

 

I'm actually buying a 4x4 pc of 1/8"diamond mesh and cutting to fit and running 4 bolts per side.

 

My friend got his stolen a bit ago. He parked it until he can get a shield. He’s pissed and terrified at the same time to take it out. Happened in Dallas. All the companies have a long wait time. His truck is 2wd TSS crew cab. He texted me that there is a company/website ( add automotive I think ) that claims to have them in stock and a little cheaper. He said it was also thinner but something is better than nothing because of the time situation. Asked me to look into it but yet to do so because I’ve been busy. I know this is happening in many places but in north Texas…..it’s BAD!

 

They got me in Mesquite, at noon.
I know it happened at noon because my alarm Drone app notified me of a stage 2 alarm trigger.
Employee parking lot, where I have to park for work M-F.
It was almost 2 weeks ago.
Didn't know what triggered the alarm until I got off work at 23:00.

I have no ETA on when I'll get my truck back.

 

Toyota said it would be a 4-5 month wait on new convertors, so my coworker got aftermarkets put on plus a FlowMaster $1200 and they got stolen again the next day while grocery shopping.

 

Well, that is something to look forward to.

I probably should have looked into aftermarket stuff.