I need some help. I took my 2005 Rx8 with 44000 miles on it to the mazda dealer. They told me to replace the catalytic converter it was going to cost me around $1600.00. Me being the broke college kid, said "no way in hell." I have a cat-back agency power exhaust on my car as well. I have been looking on the internet and finding some cheap at a discount catalytic converter website. Here is the link http://www.discountcatalyticconverte...nts=partfinder Is this a smart way to go? If not please give me suggestions.

My final question is how involved is it to change this thing out? Please help or suggestions.

Thanks!

 

Warranty on the Catalytic Converter is mandated by the US goverment for 8 yrs/80,000 mi.
You should not have to pay anything for your car.

 

Try this link:

http://www.rx7store.net/category_s/300.htm

I put this on my car about 6 months ago and absolutely love it. No CEL and the car runs great. A++++ highflow cat.

 

Those universal ones will not work.

You can get a used cat from junk yard cheaply.

and like alnielsen said, cat should be warranted till 80K miles.

1600 is highway robbery, I can get you a brand new CAT and install it for you for around 1000. its still expensive but most of it is parts.

 

2005 Rx8 with 44000, it's definitely covered by warranty.
Don't go back to that dealer again...

 

See I thought it was covered as well. How would I go about going to prove that? Is this even if I have that aftermarket cat-back exhaust?

 

Aftermarket cat-back exhaust would have no bearing on the warranty of the cat.

 

Swapping it out only requires removing a cross-member and 5 bolts on the cat pipe. These bolts will almost certainly be rusted and seized however so have a breaker bar at the ready.

 

Well the mazda dealer tells me that the cat that was on there is an aftermarket one. The weird thing though is that the exhaust system on my car is cat-back. Well it looks like I may have to do this myself.
Will this one work for sure that terch1 posted?
http://www.rx7store.net/category_s/300.htm

 

Which mid pipe do you have right now.....?

 

crack pipe?


lol jk

changing a midpipe is easier than changing a catback system

 

I currently have that mid-pipe and can confirm that it doesn't throw a CEL. I'm not sure how it will sound with your cat-back but with the stock mufflers it is rasp-city from about 4k-5500rpm.

I am currently having issues with it in conjunction with my turbo however so just stay N/A and it should be fine.

 

agency_RX8, a resonated midpipe may be a better/cheaper way to go. If, you don't have to go through an emissions check where you live.
On some cars they do, others they don't. Some throw a MIL/CEL with a high flow cat.

 

No I have to go through emissions here.

 

It only takes an hour to swap, just keep the cat and swap the mid-pipe out once a year. It's what I did for a few years (on other cars), untill they stopped emissions testing here.

 

I run the rx7store high flow cat with a GReddy SE exhaust. It sounds great. It gets a little raspy at high rpms but nothing like a racing pipe.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions and help guys. I think I may have figured out why there is a "claimed aftermarket cat." I purchased this kit from vividracing http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/a...a-p-13101.html. They are claiming that is a cat-back exhaust then when you look at this mid pipe that is a delete pipe it looks identical to one of the pipes in the kit from vividracing. http://thmotorsports.com/agency_powe...shoppingengine
They both are the same manufacture as well.

 

so it has a mid pipe? then obviously its not covered.

get a used cat and be done with it.