Quick Cat Coverter Question

[JT95]

I have a non-Cali 99 Impreza. I know the Cali cars had a different spec cat converter. What's the issue with putting Cali spec converters on a non-Cali car?

[porcupine73]

It might work ok, but you'd have to check a few things. Some of those years had different part # o2 sensors for cali spec vs non cali spec. If it does, then the ECU programming may be slightly different as well to handle the different cat. Stay away from cheap cats, they have less catalyst (which is expensive such as palladium, platinum, rhodium, etc) and that's why they're cheap.

[Fairtax4me]

I have a non-Cali 99 Impreza. I know the Cali cars had a different spec cat converter. What's the issue with putting Cali spec converters on a non-Cali car?

 

Can we ask why this idea came about in the first place? Something wrong with your current cat?

[JT95]

Can we ask why this idea came about in the first place? Something wrong with your current cat?

 

 

I've got the infamous 420 CEL code. I've read enough posts of people spending much money to replace O2s and cats and still get the code returning. I've replaced front O2 and going to do the back one. This guy is selling some OEM stuff he has had, one of which is the cats for my car. Same as mine physically, but I'm wondering if it might be a Cali spec...and if that even matters if they turn out to be. For the price, I guess it's worth the risk. I can always eBay it and get all/most of the cash back with no problem.

 

I plan to just do the anti-fouler trick if needed, but this cat setup is a good deal, so I figured I might as well give that a shot. I'm wantingg new exhaust from heads to bumper by spring, so at the least this would help do that.

[johnceggleston]

i would think that the cats are pretty dumb, their physical make up and the exhaust heat cause them to 'convert'. and if anything the cali emissions specs are going to be more demanding than the rest of the country. but i doubt that the resulting gases would be so clean as to not register as acceptable by the fed ecu.

 

now the cali ecu may cause an issue with non-cali parts.

 

you can check parts and part numbers at http://opposedforces.com/parts . but unless you can figure out the "destination" codes it may not be much help.

[porcupine73]

Right, if I had to guess, I would guess the cali spec converters, if different, have more catalyst to reduce emissions, and the ECU might have tighter tolerances for triggering emissions codes (and also if the o2 sensors are different).