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Decat Concerns/Questions. HELP!

2K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  NiallB25 
#1 ·
I wonder if you mechanical minds could help a new beamer owner please.

I am considering going to straight to stage 2 remap (like most) which entails mid pipe and decat. My question is, what are the implications of getting caught by the police with one? I am aware they are illegal and a fine is possible but I want to know if the police have the power to take my car off me (for not being roadworthy😕)

I have scoured the net for an answer but nothing clear and considering the law changes so often the posts I have read are probably not correct or as accurate as they were.

I am probably way over thinking this but your help is greatly appreciated.

Sam
 
#2 ·
you're going to have issues with MOT, in terms of emissions, and the fact that it is going to be gone.
you're also going to have potential issues from the police, now this is the big one! IF YOU DO NOT declare the decat to the insurance company and you get pulled theyll seize your vehicle for having invalid insurance because the undeclared mod makes the insurance invalid, if they pull you or hear the exhaust is excessively loud they'll have you for it, imo, as a vehicle tech, if youre splashing the money on a stage 2 i would get a milltek exhaust. both for MOT and lawful purposes but again, this needs declaring.
 
#3 ·
Thank you for your response. Since decats are illegal I have read that people declare them on insurance under exhaust mods? I will make sure to declare all mods to my insurer.

Also your mention about a Milltek exhaust, apologies for my ignorance but what would a Milltek exhaust add if I had the cat removed? My tuner has suggested I need a mid pipe and decat if I want to go stage 2. I am honestly only after the performance I do not want loud pops and bangs I want the car to be a tad louder but I am quite happy with stock sound.

Thanks
 
#4 ·
so a milltek exhaust is a sport exhaust, but due to it not being a slap dash job of welding a piece of pipe in place of the cat, they're properly done and they can be valved too etc but this is a wholeee other conversation. in your case wanting it just a bit louder a valved milltek would be perfect.

the first part of your response, i would declare it under exhaust modifications just to cover your arse. i believe its after 1993 to decat is illegal as it will fail emissions but i will provide you with a hyperlink to the milltek site.


 
#12 ·
I actually had a client once take out an insurance policy online (he was inpatient and wanted insurance asap), he did not add all the mods and then call us at which point I advised we were not going to insure him and we were issuing a 7 day RTA letter to cancel his policy as this was no longer valid but in the meantime we were going to try to work out if we could make a bespoke quote, which we could not (he had like 15 mods which were in themselves £3000 MORE valuable than the £2000 vehicle which makes NOOOO sense whatsoever and when I called the underwriter to ask them if these mods were ok I only got to the 4th mod at which point the man responded "can I stop you there, please issue out a 7 day RTA letter to cancel the policy"), a 7 day road traffic act notice is legal requirement to cancel a policy. Anyway, I call him a week later to just verbally remind he we are cancelling his policy and he is like "I've had an accident, I went to a show and crashed on the way" and I was like "did you report this to the claims team then" and he goes something like "well with £3000 worth of mods of course I have..."

They simply won't pay out because he has severely misled us about the risk.
 
#13 ·
Just get a sports cat. Job done! That's exactly what I did on my old Focus ST. Much more free flowing which gives a better sound as well as probably some minute performance gains, plus totally legal and will pass mot's without any issues.
Speaking from experience I very nearly got caught with a race pipe on my old GSXR1000 when I wrote it off. Luckily the dealer swapped the exhaust for the standard one before the insurance assessor got to it, which incidentally was less than 48hrs after the accident! I was absolutely bricking it as I thought I was going to lose it all. Since then everything has been above board - it ain't worth the risk unless you can actually afford to lose your vehicle which I'm guessing you can't.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
#14 ·
Hi i have an e36 a thief tried to steal the cats of it i chased them off last week they stole the middle section i dont have many options now bar decating the old girl but any advice on what i can do, if i put a new CAT in again it will be stolen so i need ideas, i dont have a garage or off street parking
 
#15 ·
You might be able to get a second hand replacement cat/mid section from a breakers or on ebay, shouldn't be too expensive and any exhaust shop that does mods should be able to weld it in for you, or they may also be able to supply you with a new aftermarket cat/mid section that could fit your car, but either way you will need to have it refitted as it will be an immediate MOT fail without one. Sorry to hear about the theft what a bunch of wankers, not much you can do except fit an alarm with tilt/rocking sensors and hope to catch them before they get off with it. I've heard some people have resorted to having a steel guard plate put under their car to protect the catalyst and make it harder to get at. not sure how effective that is but it's something to consider.
 
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