In my seemingly endless research on what decisions to make for my new set up, i have come accross something interesting about cats. Well really i was intending to go without cats, but from talking to local freinds and such, i discoverd that there are huge fines and possible jail time upon when the man gets wise to my disregard of nature. They wouldnt catch ya at the emissions place; i am reffering to how if a cop looks under your car for them after he pulls you over and smells them (or the lack of).........or maybe after an accident they find that you have no cats.........i'm sure there are more scerarios but you get the idea; this is a serious thing, clearly.

I bring this up becuase i have yet to see anything or anyone's concern for this possible trouble to get into brought up on the bored.

Well basicaly, i'm asking if these conciquences are valid/exsist to the extent of what i have explained above and if anyone has any info on how much and what the punishments are exactly.

May the force be with you,
-Fran

 

Cops don't care. They have better things to do. The only ones that do care are at the inspection stations. If they see it, you fail inspection and when you go for re-inspection, they focus on that. Unless you do like I did and get the reinspection at another station. The other way to fail if they don't catch it visually is by the sniffer. I used to live in Jersey and went through it back in 83.

I made sure the end of the pipe was bent enough so they couldn't get the sniffer in far enough and the reading was degraded by the fresh air. Now I live in VA and they don't do pollution tests during inspections in the southern part of the state.

Oh and BTW we don't go to an inspection station like you do. We pay $15.00 at the local repair shop.

 

Last I knew Federal implications were in excess of $10,000.00.

Now I don't personally know anybody who has been nailed, but I would wager that it would be one more thing that would be added on if you were caught doing something stupid.

 

I know of a shop that got busted. I've never heard of those laws being levied on an individual, although i believe that you're correct that they are written that way.

-brent

 

thanks for the clarifications guys.

slopokrodrigez, i like the inventive strategy there. The situation i made up with the cop was if he smelled it while he was writing a ticket or something.

 

Last summer when I was having the cat put back into my car, I saw a poster that said you could get a fine of up to $2500 for removing or tampering with the cat. I suppose that a shop that does it could be liable for much more. That's why most places simply won't do it.

A friend went in to a shop and had them install a flange in front of the cat. Then, he had them make a pipe to fit in where the cat does, but not install it. The car left the shop with a legally installed cat. Once he got home, of course, he unbolted the cat and put in the straight pipe.

 

i have never heard of anybody getting caught without cats and written some big fine, around here if you get caught with loud exhaust, all they say is quiet it down, or write you a $60 ticket.

my yearly inspection consists of pulling into an inspection station, they check the headlights/tailights, horn,wipers, and sometimes they look a break pad. it costs $15 its one of the perks living in a rural area.

but the law says if you tamper with them = BIG PENALTIES

jesse

 

I'm almost positive the fines are only for shops, not individuals.

 

About a year ago I was told of a story of a guy with this mustank who go busted. The cops impounded his car and took it for a smog test, where it was discovered he had no cats. Supposedly he was arrested and sent to the county jail for a few days.

If you ask me, it is not worth it to run on the street without cats, it's just plain stupid. There are a few guys who do around here in SoCal and I think they are crazy and asking for trouble. I can take mine off anytime, since i have some prefabbed offroad pipes (part of the flp kit). But I don't.

 

With all the high-flow cats around for reasonable prices, I would run them without a doubt on a street car. Look on eBay, a store there called "performancepeddler" is selling CarSound (MagnaFlow) high-flow cats for anywhere between $30-$40 depending your exact needs. I bought two 3" high-flow CarSound cats from that eBay store for $31.50 each and they were delivered in 3 days! Extremely sweet considering the local MagnaFlow dealer wanted $175 a piece for the same exact item.

I think the $63 and 6hp loss is well worth the improved sound, smell, and piece of mind.

 

I don't care. Cops around here care less than I do. My car sounds nasty. I'm happy.

 

We had a guy that owned a local exhaust shop and was cutting cats out for customers. Unortunately he pi$$ed too many people off with his shotty work and someone dimed him out to the EPA and well.....lets just say we wont be seeing him for a while. Like 7-10

 

I agree totaly. I was entirely in the dark as far as how stringent the punishment is concerning these things. So upon my enlightenment i hope others that didnt know this do now as well.

 

Hey I live in Sicklerville, NJ.
When I took my Formula to Deptford they spent a good long time looking under my car with the mirrors. I asked them what was going on and they told me they were verifying my cat (I have a hi flow and they told me I have to have at least 50,000 miles by federal law to replace a stock cat, I have 54,000).
So in answer to your question NJ does check for cats.
They also pull roadside inspections in the local area with a mobile emissions truck. You'll see these on Route 41 in Deptford and Berlin Crosskeys Road.
Jersey is very strict and serious about emissions. Just get a hi flow cat.

 

My cousin took the cats off his 5.2 litre dodge dakota....he got pulled over by some ******* cop for loud exhuast, who ended up sticking some long tool through his exhaust to see if he had cats....long story short, they tried to give him a $10,000 fine, and they ended up going to court over it where a settlement was made. Most cops might not care....but if you catch one in a bad mood, you could be in for a world of trouble.