curiosity about catalytic converters

[82_320i]

say you have a car that is 26 years old, can the owner legally remove the "Cat"?
i guess what i am getting at is, is there a certain age (for your car) when it is not neccesary to have a cat? Such as a "classic car" or "antique car" etc.?

[german-speed-demon]

all depends on your location. legally no, but if your state doesn't smog/emissions or anything like that you can remove it with a custom full exhaust system,

[84bmw318i]

in PA you can remove it if your car is older than a 95...not sure about laws in other places

[Rennsurfer]

Check your local laws and/or muffler shops and see what they state. I just replaced my original factory cat. converter, today. It was clogged due to the biscuit working it's way loose and blocking the outlet. So I installed a Magnaflow. Car drives so much better!

If you're in California, and you plan on replacing the converter, do it before the end of the year. The state is rewriting their laws on those and replacing them. Don't know if it's going to affect the older cars like ours. Guess we'll find out after New Year's.

Since my car's mostly original and stock, I chose to leave the system with a converter. On my other cars, I've rebuilt the engines, and had fully custom larger exhaust systems made up. My '82 320i is a great little car and I'm gonna leave it mostly factory. Only future plans would be to add European bumpers and valances.

Good luck with your venture.

[yalova77]

guys u sound like u know a lot about cats so i need to ask u couple things.well i actually have more than couple issues but let me start.i bought my 2001 330 ci sprt pckg 3 months ago and 2nd day service engine light came on,but first i changed coolent exp box then once in a while car was rumbling which felt like it wasnt burning the gas when i step on accelerator and when i start the car white smoke was coming out and i thought head gasket but drives fine i mean power and everything is there and sometimes service lights goes off and drives better as soon as light comes back on slight difference but nothing u can really feel.anyway obd gave me codes related o2 sensors(cat back bank 2)i m still driving and i used to add coolent every 3-4 days but it s been a while i didnt add coolent and each time i open to add coolent pressured air comes out.recently i start adding oil not much tough.so anyone can guess anything out of these symptoms.by the way i m suspecting cat converter because car sounds little louder but not whole a lot difference.pls someone help before i start spending for nothing.