We got a Cat Clamp, and had a muffler shop install it for about $75.
This is a good 5 min overview.
I would imagine the next step is to stamp a serial number, the VIN and other ID info on the muffler? Not sure why this is not done as a matter of course nowadays. (Can you stamp it without damage?)
I have read in the news that in some places in Canada, ID is required to sell a used CC. (Similar to legislation requiring pawn shops to ID someone pawning valuables.)
My Tesla Model 3 has very low ground clearance, so some thief will have a hard time trying to slide underneath to steal the catalytic converter. 
Pretty sure electric vehicles, including the Tesla, don’t need a catalytic converter.
Or is this a hoped-for whoosh?
Incredibly loud, startled the hell out of me when I started it up. Check engine light came on immediately. No choice but to drive it about two hours to get home, and apart from the noise and a little sluggishness it behaved fine. But when I say noise, I mean I couldn’t even hear the radio. Not a fun driving experience.
Fortunately, my insurance company covered pretty much everything. I’ll be looking into that clamp device going forward.
I hope everyone knows that I wasn’t promoting the device. Another one I looked at:
It’s a problem at trailheads in NH, even popular day hiking destinations.
I’m in North Carolina, and work in Logistics. Two of our Chevy Trax had their CCs stolen one night a few weeks ago. The thieves just cleanly snipped them off, and clearly knew exactly what they wanted and how to get it. Those two cars were parked on the side of the building, out of direct sight of the street and the security camera on the front of the building. We now park all of our vehicles out front. Interestingly, a Jeep Patriot parked next to them was untouched, but I have no idea what if any significance that had.
Company-wide (which means country-wide) there have been a rash of such thefts in the last quarter, and a small but fairly significant proportion of our company’s fleet has been victimized. Counter-theft add-ons of the sort noted upthread are being rolled out across our fleet.
The local police told us CC theft was a big issue, and there had been a lot of reports recently. Only a few days later, a professional theft ring (or at least what the police and DA claimed was a professional theft ring) that specialized in CC theft was busted up. As far as we know, though, no trace of our cars’ CCs was ever found.
I think someone’s being smug.
Yeah, can’t blame them. A friend of mine has one. Cool car.
It may have been down on power because it wasn’t able to see all of its sensors and went into a safe mode where it wasn’t trying to extract every bit of power, but removing the cat shouldn’t actually lower the engine’s power (but it should throw a CEL). And really, any noticeable difference in power is generally only going to be noticeable when you’re asking for a lot of output from the engine.
However, it may seem that way because the engine is a LOT louder, and you’re simply not pressing the pedal as hard because you’re not used to all that noise. I had a similar experience to having the cat removed when a car I used for drag racing broke an engine mount, and sheared the bolts that connected exhaust pipe to the header. So, the header on the passenger side was just dumping under the passenger floor. That car’s catalytic converter was removed by a previous owner, and it didn’t really even have mufflers. But I was amazed at the amount of sound deadening about nine feet of exhaust pipe can provide - it was at least releasing it further from my ears.
I was thinking it seemed kind of sluggish while I was driving it home after it broke, and wondered if I was just thinking that because “wow, it’s usually accelerating a lot faster when it’s that loud”. So, I got on it for a moment to see how it was wide open. Nope, if anything that particular engine was noticeably more powerful and accelerated harder (this would not be true of all engines). However, the volume with the broken exhaust went from “I can’t hear the passenger, and they can’t hear me, why are we even trying to shout?” to “Jeebus, that’s as loud as a top fuel dragster.”
In short, other than the potential damage to your ears, the exhaust not being routed out of the passenger compartment, and the environmental damage; it’s generally safe to drive a vehicle that has had a back alley catalytic converter-ectomy. At any rate, it’s not going to hurt the car.
Cat Clamp seems awfully expensive. Yes, cheaper than a new catalytic converter but not by a whole lot and chances you will get yours stolen are pretty slim.
Also, do thieves see this and move on or try cutting, cause damage that needs repair, and then give up?
Expensive insurance.
It’s like turning up to a walking safari with a pair of running shoes… in a target rich environment, anything that makes things even slightly more difficult for the thief is going to make him move on to another car. So there’s an argument to be made for something cheaper, even if it’s not bulletproof protection.
My concerns are probably atypical. It’s not just the money, I don’t want to be stranded at a remote trailhead where I might not even have phone reception. The replies advising that you can still drive your car give me some comfort. But I’ll probably still pay up and get one.
One of the things that drove our decision was a conversation we had with a detective. It seems that once thieves have stolen your cat, they wait awhile and come back. They know you’ll have a brand new one and it’ll have more platinum or whatever, therefore making it more valuable.
Yes, you can drive it. It will be so loud that you’ll alienate a lot of people if you pull in early in the morning, late at night, etc. So basically you’ll take it to the garage ASAP so they can fix it, taking a loaner or whatever. It’s not something you’d limp along with for a week. This video doesn’t totally do it justice but…
When my first two were stolen, I talked to the repair shop. They said they get a lot of business after concerts and other special events—people park their cars and they’re gone for hours. And a friend told me about some guys that go into parking garages while people worked. It’s getting more common.
Nationwide, claims of catalytic converter thefts have increased from 4,500 to 18,000 between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021 — about 293%.
Yes, we’ve had some catalytic converters stolen from cars in the parking garage at work.
It will only stop when this side of the business is regulated. The buyers must know they are buying a significant percentage of stolen goods. What it would take is a central registry of some kind to make it hard to buy or trade used CC’s. That wouldn’t stamp the problem out altogether but it would likely depress the market enough to make it not worth thieves’ time.
Most folks are familiar with the slight extra loudness you get when a muffler rots off, but it’s totally different when the exhaust system gets disconnected a lot closer to the engine, e.g. upstream of the cat. Years ago I drove up a driveway over a humped sidewalk and caught my exhaust system, breaking it off right at the exhaust manifold. The subsequent five-hour road trip probably caused long-term hearing loss for me and my passengers.
Five hours of it…yeah, that’s a problem! I drove it for 30 minutes and was glad to get out of the car at the end.
BTW we watched the thieves steal our cat on the Kia. We have Arlo, so…anyway it took all of two minutes or something.