My cat went missing once but she showed up for breakfast the next morning. Not sure my wife would let me weld a rebar cage onto it, but I'll give it a go! Thanks Donut.
The most startling thing I learned from this video is that the Chrysler Sebring has at least a single redeeming quality in that most people wouldn't know where the catalytic converter is located...
A lot of new cars are like that now too. Buddy of mine works as a tech at a Honda dealer and he showed me where the cats are on the Honda HRV… unless you feel like removing the entire transmission, you ain’t getting to em.
The bigger issue is that there is even an industry for these. As a wrecker/recycler, if you're taking in dozens of cats a week from the same tweaker, week after week, and all of them are cut out/not unbolted, and with no rust perforation/impact damage/rattling substrate (ie natural end of life, not a "fresh" unit), then you have to know you're taking in stolen cats. Go after the people knowingly buying stolen cats and you'll dry the demand up. That's why marking the cats with the VIN is good, with the idea that the recycler will be able to check if it's stolen- but that system is predicated on the assumption the recycler bothers to check, and that there's some kind of centralized database.
The fuck is a vin on a cat going to do?? 🤣 just smooth it out or get rid of the fkn vin not that hard to do. You can’t go after people buying the stolen cars bc it’s stupid! There’s always people who are going to buy it.
A lot of these get sent overseas. Especially if it's more of a gang than a lone tweaker stealing them. They pack them into shipping containers, and each container can be worth hundreds of thousands.
@@barryhill1044 over a cat? Nah man that’s being dramatic. Rapist get less of a sentence. It should be a heavy fine with 3-5yr sentence I think that’s fair.
I lost mine to a thief and it took forever for a new one to come in... so being insane I did the following. Bought a cat shield, they bolt onto the frame using security screws so you don't have to weld it. Engraved my VIN and stolen on it THEN hit it with some high temp bright orange spray paint, Then attached one of those alarms to the cat shield itself. If some asshole gets through all of that then I guess he deserves it.
@@nicecobra1991 any thief could in time get through anything, its about making yours less appealing. Why would a thief risk spending easily 10 times longer trying to get to my cat which is bright orange and covered in STOLEN and my vin number when he could just drive down the street to a hundred unprotected ones?
Remember unless you park in a empty field there is always another car close by that a thief will target. You just need to make it unappealing for the thief. We had a Tundra customer that lost 3 cats in 2020. After the third one he put a blinking Led on the bottom of his truck(it does not do anything except light up the ground a little). He has not had one stolen since.
Sometimes the easiest solution is also the cheapest. Thieves definitely don't want any extra attention so will usually go after the easiest target with the least obstacles as thieves are also generally lazy.
@@Shot-by-brandon plenty of alarm systems have a blinking LED on the dash. If you let it sit long enough it will, but you recharge the battery every time you drive. So just don't let it sit.
My wifes converter got stolen off her prius while in the "attended" airport lot. I ended up driving two hours there to meet her and then driving her car back to the local dealer for repairs. I wore ear protection (muffs). I should have brought earplugs AND muffs. I knew it was going to be loud but I didn't know just how loud. Guys on Harleys were swiveling their heads around looking for some giant beast with huge pipes only to see a tall guy hunched over in a tiny prius with a pissed-off look on his face.
I call bs on that one, my dads V10 excursion got the cat stolen and it was loud yes but I never needed hearing protection. How loud could that tiny Hybrid motor possibly be?!
My Saab was loud as hell too when the exhaust snapped off at the header. I thought I was gonna be deaf by the time I got it to the shop and it was only 2 miles away. The resonance was unbelievable. Felt like the fillings were going to vibrate out of my teeth and had a headache later.
something you guys failed to mention is that thieves are opportunists. The cable contraption is secure, sure, but it also looks like enough of a pain in the ass that any thief that sees it is just going to NOPE out of there, too much work, too much risk of getting caught.
Many thieves have bolt cutters in their tool bag. If these guys knew anything about theft then they would have cut through those cables in seconds. Better yet cut the bolts holding the contraption together. The best device is probably the motion alarm. Everyone ignores alarms except for the person who has an alarm. Also, thieves won't wait around to see if anyone heard it. They will run. Any of these will most likely be enough to deter a thief. Any extra work is too much work and they find another car. If they wanted to work hard then they would get a real job.
It's true, thieves are opportunists. You just want to make things difficult enough for them, that they choose another victim. Think about it, that's the point of locks. I'm sure you've all watched the channel Lock Picking Lawyer. But the truth is, a crackhead isn't going carry a bunch of lockpicking tools with him to break into cars or houses. They're going to choose the unlocked car or house.
I worked in an auto repair shop until I recently retired. I had many opportunities to replace stolen catalytic convertors. My favorite theft attempt was a late model Ram truck towed in with the driveshaft cut in half.
Funny you say that cause he used to be over the top too and trying too hard to impress the viewers, that was a turn off for me. But, now I’ll give him a chance he’s more composed now.
I made my own cat clamp at home (I literally tied a 10m cable around the exhaust) and even when riding through the branches in the orchards I didn't notice any more branches caught (but I tied the cable closer around the exhaust than with the cat clamp). in my opinion, this is the best solution - make it stupidly hard for thieves. Plus, I'd say more catalytic converter thefts are in cities.
put a metal plate under the cat clamp. if it's done right and tucked under there it will be fine and is reversable. or just get a car where the cat isn't easy to get to like the Sebring.
Happens. My friend was sending his old Golf to the scrap, so he removed the cat because he had heard it's worth some money. When he showed it to me I nearly fell over laughing. Yeah, it was the resonator instead.
Any additional protection is better than nothing. A thief is looking for a quick score, if they see something that'll take time, they'll move on to the next.
Yeah, you cannot steal-prove anything, since in the end, when they put in enough effort, material and time, they will get it. As you do not have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the guy beside you^^ On that subject matter... I have a bear lock installed in my car, which is a steel rod going down into the gear box and locking the gears. You can still drive the car, but you cannot shift an stealing a car in reverse is probably not fun and a bit obvious...and I like to park it against a wall ;-) Of course, you can pick the lock or drill it out, but this takes time and when the next score it just around the corner...why do it?
It's like that joke about how if you and another guy are being chased by a bear, you don't need to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun the other guy.
I would never install any loose fitted cables under my truck looping around the frame and exhaust… if they snagged on anything while im cruising down my camp road or any dirt road it would be catastrophic
I am sitting here, watching this the day after leaving the ER after slicing about 1/2" into my arm with a cutoff wheel that didn't have a guard on it. I've been in the industrial trades for a little over 15 years and thought my amateurish mistakes were behind me. Where I'm going with this is that you used a cutoff wheel without gloves or a guard. We've all been there and I'm not the hall monitor type, but a lot of kids watch these shows and it would be AWESOME if Donut set an example on RUclips for the use of proper PPE. After my 3rd trip to the ER from the shipyard to have some steel drilled out of my eye with a rotary burr, I don't touch my grinder without a face shield, safety glasses, ear protection, and gloves. Even though I had all of that on, the lack of a guard on the grinder negated the other precautions I had taken on this one. Don't take shortcuts. All of mine are made in privacy, but the next generation is gonna see yours and copy them. Sorry, I'll stop now. Love the channel lol.
I appreciate where you’re coming from, but here’s another perspective. You’re a wise, 15-year-seasoned tradie, VERY likely seen countless warnings, safety messages, chilling stories and graphic injuries, yet you JUST got out of the hospital for the very thing you’re chastising Donut for. By self-admission it took three previous injuries for you to change your ways to wear face/eye PPE. Kids watching these videos don’t remove guards and not wear PPE because they saw their favourite RUclipsrs doing the same… They do so for the same reasons you did/didn’t remove a guard or wear PPE. The only difference to be made comes from actively educating, not just demonstrating by example. Everyone is quick to jump to the PSA’s immediately after they have made the a mistake, irrespective of commonsense or countless other warnings. I’m all for safety messages, but don’t chastise Donut for “not setting an example”. People will do what they want to do, warnings or otherwise, but only active education will help naivety; no amount of example will help carelessness or complacency.
good call. the guards are not in the way, you just have to not be lazy and move it if you need to for the job. removing and defeating safety devices way more amateurish than armatures want to believe. If your doing the same dangerous thing over and over (working with power tools in this case) its not a case of if but when shit goes wrong. the true pro realizes this and does everything possible to protect themselves. Take off loose items, tie back long hair, wear a dust mask and safety goggles. wear ear protection. take off rings and jewelry. Always assume the cut will kickback. Double up on jacks, throw a spare tire under there, etc. in the words of Wu Tang, Protect yo Neck!
Been in sheetmetal union for over 20 years now. I did the same thing back in the winter. 24 stitches. Just when we think we are to good to make dumb mistakes the universe reminds us no one is immune to poor saftey practices. Hope you heal up and get back to the grind soon. Lol no pun intended
They don't. Put them on when my Tundra's cats were stolen. Worked great, but every time I went into a shop, the mechanic would call his buddies to look at this thing and laugh. Hey, my cats were never stolen again. Only bitch was when I needed to take them off and they had rusted and I needed to use an angle grinder in my driveway.
My converter was stolen off of my Tacoma. They cut my transmission line while doing it, too. I had a mechanic install a steel cage around the new one and I think it is enough of a deterrent. The steel is too strong for a sawsall and would take too long for a grinder. The key to me is making sure it will take a long time to remove the converter and, as you all pointed out, make sure it will be too loud. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of mechanics are coming up with ways to help customers protect their catalytic converter since it has become such a problem.
I used to bring in 15-20 cats at a time. The only time I got a weird look is when I refused to sell them when I got a low ball price. Buyers don't give a shit where you got your cats all they want is to screw you on the price they pay.
I think the biggest thing with these devices is that they act as a deterrent so the thief will think your cars too hard and move to the next car which doesn’t have a device fitted.
Exactly this, same with steering locks. Most of them can be quickly snapped or cut off, but unless you've got a nice enough car (in which case they'll probably need to also know how to get it started whether that be key theft, hotwire, or wireless key jacking) they'll move onto the much easier next car. A thieves most important thing is time, they can be as loud as they want if it only takes a few seconds.
Would have liked to have seen the cat strap actually heated to the exhaust to see how hard it would be to remove. I'd imagine it wouldn't just peel off like in their example to get to the other side. Regardless I guess the cat clamp would be better if you're paying the same price.
From what it looked like, on this particular car, you could just cut from the top side and ignore the strap altogether... What was actually connecting the cat to the strap was just that tiny metal strip..
@@prdprdprdprdprdel If the strap was heated and went through the "curing" period, the strap would've been stuck to the catalytic converter. So if you cut the cat like they did in the video, the strip would still be connected to the cat, so you'd have to cut the strap.
@@natendragon7172 It's melted plastic. if you pull, it'll snap off.. pretty sure that if you drove around for some time, it would be so brittle it might eventually fall off by itself...
I would just weld a few 304 stainless bars parallel with the cat, have you ever tried to cut 304 stainless with a sawzall? Lol. Edit: removed problem solving information 😉.
11:30 Remember, the fiberglassed/duct tape/cable thing also would have been bonded to the cat. Thus, it could not be pulled back after one end was cut. This would have increased the time.
If you get through the cables on one side then you just cut the pipe on the other side and the cables slide out. But I would have much rather seen this properly bonded.
Grab rip done. If you've ever used Duct Tape for ducting, you know it's not bulletproof security. And yes it was "bonded" the same way (the tape melted to the ducting because of heat running through the duct) Claiming the tape melting is bonding is ridiculous... The tape melted to the surface. It did not "bond". There is a difference.
@@fmo94jos8v3 Yeah, pretty sure it wasn't plain old duct tape. More like muffler tape. Which is different. I've used both. Duct tape won't melt and stick at all. It'll just melt and get hard and burn through and crumble. Muffler tape, however, will form a pretty decent bond. It is also designed to stick through heating. You can easily seal mufflers and pipes with large holes with muffler tape. And no, they never once ran the engine to bond the tape in any way.
My cat converter literally got stolen 2 days ago. This is why I watched this. I wanted to know what the best option was for anti-theft. I did file a police report and a claim with my insurance. And now I'm trying to find options to help me keep the replacement safe. Thank you for this video.
This happened to our family at a terrible time too. We don't drive crazy, so we have comprehensive insurance (in-case we hit your car). It was out of pocket and just horribly expensive and inconvenient. Old 2001 Honda Accord parked in our apartment complex. You can look at our car and tell that we're not exactly living the American Dream yet. I understand a lot of crime because I struggle too, but these people cause so much pain for a relatively little gain. I want to break their knees with a hammer if i see somebody sawing under a car.
I'm not a fan of slamming cars, but living in an area where Catalytic Converter theft is off the charts genuinely makes me consider an airbag system. Can't chop my shit off if you can't even get a jack under it. 🤷♂
Who said you have to get the jack under the car to jack it up? I would just jam that jack in your plastic grill and lift that car up by the hood. Now you need a new grill , rad, and hood :D
I had my cat stolen off my motorhome twice in 8 months. Both times it was stolen from different storage lots with camera's , iights , and fenced in parking. Each time it was $2800. to replace. I bought the new cat and put flanges on each end of it and on the exhaust pipes going to it. Now it takes 10 min's to remove or install so while it is in the storage lot I just remove it and take it home where it is locked up in my garage.
I had my cat stolen at work off my Tacoma and a block away from PD station. PD wouldn't even come take a report, I had to make one on line. Bottom line I had to wait almost 2 months for parts but had the skid plate type protection installed..it's very heavy duty and hopefully deterrent enough. Great demonstrations!
I like the idea of copper lines installed parallel with the cat. Fill those with permanent dye/fluorescent liquid and pressurize it. Also add a GoPro, so you can upload the footage later.
I would say some shielded copper wire connected to a high voltage capacitor from a microwave oven. Only other thing to have to deal with is where to dump the body.
My sister had her first care stolen. It was a early 2000's Honda CR-V. They took anything that wasn't bolted down. They even stole my niece's car seat. I'm pretty sure she was one of the people in 2021 that was part of the statistics mentioned in the start of the video. When I purchased my 2018 Mazda CX-5 I noticed when the dealer did my free oil change they sent me a video of them doing an inspection of the underside of my car. There is a big plate of metal under the car protecting many parts including the Catalytic Converter. Apparently it is standard on some cars but an option you have to pay for on other vehicles like the Toyota Tacoma I was looking at before I purchased my Mazda.
I have a catshield on my Prius and have parked in some sketchy as hell places. I've found damage to the undercarriage once from a poorly placed Jack but other than that, the shield wasn't touched. My version has custom screws and bolts to pre-existing holes in the frame. Cost me $130.00
I think a great protector would be sort of like a car alarm, but instead of making a useless noise, the alarm activates bright, motion sensing, strobe lights, that are mounted to the bottom of the car. The thieves would have to work blind, with an electric saw. My bet is that they'd rather move on. (edit: maybe it also glitter bombs them).
@RARE WORLD I hope your car is protected, but I'm not sure it is. I asked a cop what they thought about cameras. They said in this context they usually don't get anything. Even if the camera is pointed right at them, they're probably wearing a mask. They didn't say anything about license plates, but I imagine getting that on camera could be useful. It might be hard to prove their car is related to the person under your car though. Also, I noted that the police blotter in my town put most of the thefts in the middle of the night, when cameras won't be able to see much.
Or maybe one that sprays them with some type of metal, maybe copper or bronze, and it could be tiny little spheres, and instead of spraying them they get launched really really fast, perhaps some kind of combustion mechanism could propel them - maybe a tube of some sort to direct them towards the thieves? I dunno but if someone could figure out something like this I bet we would have a lot less thieves
The bad part about the wired up cat protector is I imagine it would probably rattle and make a ton of noise it would be like having a loose exhaust hanging
My brother used to get metal plates laser cut that cost less than $15 and fitted them to 100's of Uber cars in London. Went from getting 10 - 20 stolen a week to 0. Not a single theft. The plate took 5 minutes to fit, I installed about 100 of them myself. Just used some security bolts that snapped off and left a round surface when tighetened, and red locktite. They looked like the CatSheild products but much cheaper and stronger.
Prior experience at a Muffler shop here and I’ve installed these as well as custom fabricated cages. Only losers attack cars who won’t fight back. The Cat-Clamp was definitely the best option for customers and cost effective at about $200-$250 installed.
Reminds me of what happened to my old car. I had a 03 neon, I had done really crappy diy work to it and one of the things I did was gut out the cat. (I didn't care about the car, it was something to have fun with) One day my car was louder than it was before and I looked under the car and saw the empty cat casing laying on the ground. After I realized what happened I laughed my ass because I had given them that false hope of a score.
i feel like the cat strap wasnt given as good as a chance since it wasnt really installed and it was cut where the cables were being held to the shaft meaning the cables werent able to freely move
How else would you install it? If its just some high temp adhesive, the second the sawzaw hits it it will come off and then you can just maneuver the blade around it. If ts clamped then your always gonna have that point of no movement somewhere. At first I actually thought it was legit but the longer the video went on and the more I could think about it, my mind changed. Having only one cord around isnt enough, your always gonna be able to maneuver around it.
Im guessing they planned for that when designing a product that goes on your exhaust some People use zipties to hold up their exhaust when the rubber mounts fail the back end isnt too hot for some types of plastic
I think the cat strap would've done much better if it was installed like it's supposed to be. Cinching it down with clamps removed the ability for the internal cables to move allowing them to be cut
I have a cat shield (big aluminum plate for about $220) plus a vibration detecting alarm like they used. I fastened the alarm behind the front license plate holder so it's hidden. Those things will melt on your Cat! Between the two, I think it's a decent deterrent. The alarm makes a little more attention be focused on them, and the plate slows them down.
Very important lesson! The guard should not be removable at all. My uncle almost killed himself once. Somehow the disk screw undid itself while cutting iron tubing and the disk got fullspeed slingshotted right into his upper nose (between his eyes). He was using big bulky protective glasses (god bless) that literally exploded with the impact of the disk, but really slowed the disk down. Still, the disk managed to shoot downwards vertically after hitting the glasses (the direction it was spinning) and sliced open his nose and lips in two and luckily it continued straight into the ground and didn't hit any other part of his body. It didn't do enough damage to be life threatening but it costed him a rush to the hospital, A LOT of stitches and a full day of extreme panic to the family and himself. Now everything is fine but he now was a vertical scar in the middle of his face. He learned the lesson and now everytime he uses angle grinders he uses the best quality disks possible (f*ck money vs heath), all the protections and guards and most of the times wears his freaking motorcycle helmet too.
@@azenyr exactly. Glad it wasn't fatal. Yes, same with motorcycle helment. Only time I would ever have it off, is after maintenance, around the neighborhood to listen for odd noises
@@azenyr Damn. Thanks. That's all I can say to start out. After that, if this is applicable and helpful, do use Thread Locker for situations like that. I'm not sure how strong the common Blue one is or how often (if at all) it will need re-applied, but it's helpful for a lot of things - especially here.
Alright but during the catstrap test they clamped it to the cat & exhaust causing the cable to also get clamped down and couldn't move the way it was supposed to. Not saying that would drastically change the time but it definitely makes the cables easier to cut through.
Yeah, they didn't set that one up correctly at all. Its suppose to be bonded to the exhaust, not clamped on. The second one would be easy to defeat by cutting the bolts holding the clamps.
Oddly though they come with these metal "zip-ties" that the crew used to install. Maybe you're not supposed to tighten them down all the way so that the cables can still move freely inside of their sleeve, which is really the engineering wizardry behind those.
@@drinklifeup well I would asume that you use them for the installation, because you have to drive at least once so the adhesive kicks in, and bounds the strap to the metal, then you can remove the clamps again, so yeah, incorrectly installed/tested, since it comes down to how good it get's stuck on the strap, since you could just saw up > down, depending on the car modell and just rip it from the strap, without even cutting the wires, if it's not binding that well.
I don't really live in a high theft area, but close enough to it to where the crime sometimes travels to us, and I am thinking of putting a cat clamp on my truck and the wife's van. Is there any consideration I should make in how I wrap the cable? Like I would hate to wrap it around something important and piss off my mechanic because I made their day twice as long.
Most of the cat theives around here are jacking the whole car first, driving it a few miles then stripping it near a hobo enclave with lots of busty RV's nearby, and then left on the side of the street. Few of our thieves are stealing cats on site, prefering to take the whole enchilada someplace where they have tools, space, and a dump plan. Cops see them all the time at work in their Bartertown villages at night with Petzl headlamps on, working in teams. They just cruise on.
Respect for how you guys do your ads. As a token of my appreciation I've been watching once then I restart the video and let it play without skipping ads.
The only thing that can stop determined thieves is lethal booby traps, highly illegal or armed guards. Legal but cumbersome and expensive. If one has the money to pay for armed guards and insurance for same, one can move into a house with a locked garage, high fence or both
The best theft device is to spend a night in your car. When you hear the thief slide under your car go ahead and pull out of the parking spot and then make sure you back back into the parking spot just in case you forgot something.
I work at a shop that shares a parking lot with our used car sales building who also happens to run budget rentals out of. I've honestly lost count of how many cats are stolen off these budgets. Subsequently we have a fleet account who primarily has the Chevy express vans who have custom fitted cat shields made for each van they have. We mocked up a template and welded together multiple shields so they would be bolt on and removable when the time is needed.
When you cut the strap you cut it close to the ring it was attached to, which makes the wires inside of it unable to move which defeats the whole purpose of the strap, when its bonded to the exhaust how it should be, the wires inside Will have free movement and the saw Will probably have a much harder time to get through
Right? They went through all the trouble of explaining how the product worked then half assed the install and were able to get it off because it wasn't done correctly. When bonded to the exhaust you wouldn't be able to just cut the ties and have it fall out of place.
The cat strap comes with some small U shaped bits... more like little C channel pieces or something... shaped like a ] that are supposed to go in the clamps to keep the clamp from tightening down on the cables... still holds the strap, but keeps the clamp off the cables. They didn't install these.
@@Idiomatick this doesnt matter bcoz they tested a product with incorrect installation, would be better to skip review this product as its far away from a fair test
Sister had her CAT stolen in the middle of a well lit private parking garage during the day in Dallas. It was covered in Cameras and we got ahold of the footage. They had a pretty unique way, using a stolen tow truck they lift up cars, 2 people go under and take the CAT, and they were in and out in under a minute. They did a total of 12 cars that day and because it was a tow truck the security guard let them in and out without asking any questions.
OK this is one of the funniest Cat steals ever, We had this new Citroen C4 and had it up on a display ramp a group decided to try and steal the cat off this car. They first cut a chunk of the under tray and then the first section of the exhaust then cut the middle of the exhaust and running off with it. The morning the sales people arrive and noticed the C4 with the section of the exhaust missing. So they get me to look at it to see what it needs, They tell me that someone stole the cat off it and when I see it I imminently laughed because they actually stole the middle muffler off it so new under tray and middle muffler later all good to go.
Damnit I have a car with an aftermarket exhaust with a middle muffler instead of a cat. I honest thought to myself "surely no one would be stupid enough to try and steal a muffler one day" thanks for reminding me people are idiots
Would be curious to see how the cat clamp wouldve hold up to bolt cutters / steel cable cutters. Typically they can get through cables like that with little effort- And do so quietly.
Bolt cutters require a wide range of motion though to operate. Unless the thief takes the whole car and puts it up on a lift, thats not what theyre using
That makes sense, but a big part of this is time and effort. I had the cat stolen out of my element in a mall parking lot. Most of these thieves only have a saw, and if they see that it’s gonna take more time and effort they usually just skip to the next one, especially in a situation like mine, in public. Making it look challenging and confusing is sometimes the best deterrent!
Keep in mind the average garbage pail human out stealing cats is thinking of bringing a Sawzall and spare blades, bolt cutters would not seem practical unless they've run into one of these before.
@@alexandermorris2335 I get what you mean but you could still just use the bolt cutters horizontally instead of vertically if you were under a car. But regardless I doubt anybody who steals cats carries bolt cutters. Either way I'd imagine that the cat clamp system would be enough to deter someone because it makes it harder to remove. Unless it was on a specific vehicle they were targeting because it has a particularly valuable cat.
Depending on what car you have determines on how much it cost to replace the cat. I replaced the cat on my mom's van for under $200. Hardened steal would be ur best bet to make a cage out of. The harder the steel the longer it takes to cut.
It depends on the state you live in, too. Some states don't care if you install a cheap aftermarket (less effective) cat. But if you live in CA or CO for example, the cats have to be of OE quality, have an EO number, be warrantied for 5 years/50k miles. For some cars there are cheaper California legal cats, but for some cars there's no other option but to buy an OEM cat from the manufacturer. The 5.7L Tundras are one example. No aftermarket CA compliant ones, and the OEM ones from Toyota will run you FOUR GRAND to replace both sides.
What's sad about this is they've been trying to legislate the problem away over the years because people "want something to be done about it", but all of these bills/laws are hopelessly ignorant to what the thieves are actually doing. They address the sale, purchase, and/or tracking of cats with ideas like "limit the sale to dealerships" or "etch the VIN on it" because the ones writing up these stupid bills/laws actually think that all of the thieves want whole intact converters because they can flip them for a profit * as a converter *. 🚫WRONG!⚠ Here's the problem, and they said it in this video (1:48): Only _some_ of the money is in trying to flip a converter intact, and plenty has been done about limiting that. What's not being addressed by any of these laws is most thieves aren't stealing "catalytic converters", they're stealing Rhodium, Palladium, Platinum, and whatever else can be extracted from it. The real money is in the * metals * that can be extracted from them and sold as is, so it doesn't matter how much you regulate the converters, because they all look the same from the other side of a recycling/melting process. VIN numbers, tracing devices, suspicious cutting techniques... all gone. This idea that every stolen converter is just being flipped by a shady mechanic shop that buys them from strangers in the ally and that more converter regulations will put an end to it is just ridiculous 🤦♂. Thankfully some places are finally being a little smarter about it and are looking closer at the ones who can actually extract precious metals like recyclers and places that will pay out for the raw metals. Sure it's hard to catch a thief in the night, but last I checked Rhodium isn't something you can sell to just anybody so you already know where it's going, and places that are in the business of dealing with precious metals have to be getting it from somewhere.
My neighbour welded barb wire spikes all around his truck's cat converter and exust pipe to prevent thieves from steeling them and it worked. Just the sight of those huge spike sticking out from under his truck is enough to scare away anyone.
I was a 911 dispatcher for a while, and when I worked nights, I could almost always count on hearing from Bob, the guy who was the night security guard at a U-Haul lot where there were hundreds of trucks. The property and lot were HUGE, and basically took up a whole block, so there were endless places that thieves could hop the fence and be under a truck in seconds. We rarely caught them, but did manage to nab a few of them. But seriously, it was like several times a week!
I feel like that by clamping the last one down you held the cables in place and they couldn't move with the blade. If it bonded with the glue they could've moved in the strap better most likely.
Yea, we include in every package u-shaped aluminum channel "clamp collars" 1in length along with instructions to place them under the exhaust clamps which creates a tunnel for the internal cables to move with the blade. Creates a massive difference for cutting. Unfortunately, they didn't installed it with them here. Clamping down directly on top of the cables creates a weak point which is right were he put the sawzall blade.
About a year ago I drove on a highway and saw a sawzall on the side of the road just laying there. When I went to retrive it there was some metal shavings and tiny plastic debrie. Some 1 cut a CAt out of some 1s car and left his milwaukee behind. It's been a solid tool.
My boyfriend showed me your yideos about a year ago and because of y'all i've learned so many things about cars. You guys have really made my love for cars grow. Super inspiring, keep it up! SOme of the most welcoming people to the car community. :)
@@Lofi.z34 for someone who didn't even know how an engine worked to helping my bf with his project car.. I think they have taught me a few things 😂 but I know a lot of their videos are for fun.. for people that know at that stuff. It's a learning experience for others
@@zoepratt1783 Nice here are a couple more channels you and your bf might like. sixtyfiveford fixes cars sometimes and makes all kinds of things and tricks, MrTeslonian for alternative energies things and such(and robots). J Mantzel for being a crazy guy on a island now who make sense "alot" of the time. He made a small solar dozer years ago. and lot of other things. hope you two can enjoy some of these. Oh another channel i recently found. Vampire Robot channel. It reminds of a time capsule, but with videos.
We are a forklift dealer in downtown Nashville last year over the course of 6 months we had 108 catalytic converters stolen from our service vans and lifts. Our lot looks like a prison with all the fence and razor wire. Caught them on camera every time. Whether it not Metro PD ever made any arrests is unknown, but doubtful. My personal car was stolen along with a co-workers on the same day by juveniles. Police caught them, they were using my Samsung earbuds and I was tracking the location. I drove by and spooked them accidentally in North Nashville, because the Samsung earbuds don't give a precise location. They sped off after they were confident we weren't following, parked the car downtown, then started walking several miles back to their home. Police intercepted them once they were home with keys and my grandmother's wedding ring I had locked in the glove Box in their pocket. The $4,000 worth of other stuff in my car was not recovered.
One might think after the first dozen was stolen, additional measures (like hiring a guard or guard dogs or some kind of active monitoring) would be taken. Even hiring an armed guard would be cheaper than having all those cats stolen
as a smog tech i hope you saved your paperwork for that catalyst shown at 12:41. with the rebar installed like that is covers up the carb number which we use to verify legality of the catalyst to the vehicle. paperwork and receipts will be needed unless you "know a guy" love your channel btw. you guys make awesome content. feel free to let me know if you ever want some smog advice.
DON'T have Smog BS in Arizona...also no Disarmament...enjoy your police State 3rd World Country, After taxes and union Fees you make less than " Professional " Burger Flippers
The biggest source of smog in California is Nancy Pelosi's farts. Why do California car owners have to jump through hoops to get their cars tested, while Nancy Pelosi keeps polluting the atmosphere?
@@felipep5581 yep!!! And after the EV mandate no more smog shops as everyone that still has an ICE vehicle and half a brain will move to a free state which will have the added bonus of being able to carry self defense.
Thieves stole my catalytic converters off my 2005 tundra on separate dates, 3 weeks apart. First time they stole passenger cat and I was not home. I woke up to second time and almost caught theives with my 38 special. My truck sits next to my bedroom, It took 5 seconds for each cut. Last words I heard was 'Lets go lets go'. By the time I got out the front door they were gone. Insurance totaled the car. Today (10 months later ) I am installing the Cat Security Shield & extension on my newly purchased 2020 tundra. I am also installing the $30 gimmick alarm for kicks. Thanks guys, great video!!!
Btw, thieves aren't selling to scrap and junkyards generally. I sold cats in '08-'10 and worked in a scrapyard. I don't think we had a single stray cat come in (lol no pun intended). Retail was only paying about $25-$50 per cat. Most of what we got came with entire vehicles. The refineries were the ones paying $300+ and it's easy to get a connection to them...I personally used the largest auction site to find buyers and emailed them directly for future business.
I work in a scrap yard and we also sell to 3rd party companies who then sell to refineries. We’re not gonna pay top dollar because we have to make a profit. But we still get the strays coming in, in our state we require a title though
The way I drive, I would be afraid of the cables from the cat clamp getting caught in something I'm driving over and causing havoc to my undercarriage 😂
For the cat clamp cage thingy for the steel cables if you just use a bolt cutter for the cables that attach to the chassis then it would be silent and then you could just Sawzall the rest within a minute or less @donutmedia
I had my Prius cat stolen 2x last year. After the second time I got a cat shield installed. Was $500 but the peace of mind of knowing ain't nobody gonna bother trying to bust out all those rivets etc makes me way more confident to park anywhere. The problem with all the cheaper ones is some idiot might still try and cut it out and still be able to damage the exhaust even if they fail to steal it.
My catalytic converter crapped out a couple of years ago. Cost to replace with an OEM at the dealership? Almost $3,000. I took a chance and went on EBay and got one for less than $150. Still working great and passing inspection. If you do decide to replace your own, on your own, be sure to also replace the O2 sensor at the same time.
@@ebsa123123 It did indeed and it's continuing to do so! Mind you I hold my breath every year at inspection time, but so far, so good. Knock on wood! . I would suggest that when changing your CC you also change your O2 sensor(s) (number of sensors depends on type and model of car) at the same time. They're cheap relatively speaking, and since they work with the CC you might as well change them also at the same time. Bad O2 sensors can also cause emissions failures.
@@SkyKing1717 I was doing fine with my 65 dollar eBay CC until my smog tech started the visual inspection. He's an old guy with knee issues so he never checks, but hired a young hippy able to work a phone camera. No CARB number in CA, NY, MN, CO can be a problem.
I feel like all you really need is something that makes it look like it’s going to be hard to steal. If someone’s going to steal a cat and they see anything that’s gonna make it harder odds are they won’t even try. Great video!
Great video guys. The cat was stolen off our 2nd gen MDX at local tire shop. Maybe a video on a the options for replacement after it has been stolen. Sometimes the vehicle isnt worth the replacement.
Got my cat stolen in 2021 while I was sitting on quarintine after travels. Ironically thiefs did not stay at home during covid, so thinking about one of these products for the next car. Great review guys, well appreciated. Take care!
This is a great video. I install cat clamps at my job all the time and very rarely do we see the same cars get targeted. Cat clamp is a little expensive but definitely worth stopping a theft
Do these companies include a deterring sticker with their product? It would be a good idea, like security companies have signs that can deter thieves. Not 100%, but when they are casing a job, they just may pass up a car with a sticker. If it’s an SUV, they would probably just peek underneath. So, IDK. Just a thought.
I think the Cat Strap had a sticker with it. But I ended up just spraying everything with bright orange header paint. You can see it without even getting under the vehicle. So hopefully they'll get under there and think, "Hmm... why is everything day glow orange?"
I have an Audi A4 B5 1.8T. Its catalytic converter sits next to the engine high up in the engine bay. You would have to open the hood to even get to it. And even then, sawing it off wouldn't be a straightforward job because there's lots of engine components in the way. It also means it's a two-hour job to replace it when it breaks, but at least it's safe to assume that thieves will not mess with my car 😁
Here's what's so funny to me..... I had a 98 Sebring convertible, and the exhaust busted at the weld bung for the resonater.... I basically had a ghetto cat back exhaust 🤣 I drove it around thinking it sounded like a race car for 6 months before getting it fixed. Ahh, the days of your first car. It deed feel like I gained a few ponies though, could have been placebo from hearing exhaust straight out of the Cat
@port nut reminds me of my childhood. My dad had a '70 Nova, which he took one of his two GIANT Cerwin-Vega tower speakers and fit it in the trunk..... i know he did some kinda fuckery to power them properly, some converter or something. I was too young to actually grasp what he had done, and he ended up pulling the tower out and selling it before I was old enough to really appreciate his backyard ingenuity. Loud and proud, driving like a bat outta hell. I miss that car. Hell, my first trip to the hospital from busting my head open was in the back of that car 🤣 I can still remember the blood stains in the floorboard carpet.
The Cat locker is perfect for work trucks left out in the open. Our shop used to get hit almost every month but haven't since installed. For a regular passenger car i would recommend the skid plate. all our job's priuses has them installed.
One of the mechanisms that people are using to get catalytic converters out from undercars really fast is a rotary blade Cutting tool. They can get a catalytic converter off in about 20 seconds with that and it's on a clamp so everything just gets fed towards the blade
My catalytic converters was stollen just last month from my Acura TSX. Never thought it would happen to my car but nevertheless I’m in the process of getting it replaced. The only thing I know is that once it’s replaced the thieves most likely will not come back because the aftermarket at is not worth much on the street. Only the original one.
@@SeanBZA nah tweaker ain’t going for a AM cat for 5$ they would sooner pawn/sell the tools they have. Unfortunately my family tree is bountiful with meth on one particular side
Thieves won’t know it’s a replacement until they’re already under the car. Sure, the same thieves might not hit your car twice, but there’s a bunch of different thieves out there. Also, in CA, I feel the replacement cat likely has to be OEM. I wonder what happens when OEM is no longer available? Most AM cats aren’t CARB legal.
I think most of these products would deter theft just by being more of a nuisance. Even if you could theoretically get through them it would make it take more time and these thieves have to be quick or risk getting caught. I’m guessing most of them would see these things and immediately give up on the car that has one and move on to another nearby car because it’s not worth it.
Shield would be the best way to go, just make sure its held more than just on 4 easy to match screws. Gotta be screws with special tool needed for them.
Our shop has been contracted to install these products onto all the local FedEx trucks So far, so good and no chopping! Good thing the Texas governor also enacted a law that bans catalytic converter sales within the state to junkyards without proof of ownership Thats helped a lot too There's also electrified razor wire but that might be frowned upon depending on where you live lol
Yeah thankfully New Jersey banning all second hand Cat sales has severely limited the profitability of that kinda theft just because no respectable junk yard or recycler will take one that is not connected to a car frame.
I’m in Texas and had no idea about this law. It didn’t stop the thieves from taking my cat converter in December ‘22. They must have gone out of state to sell it.
I had my catalytic converter stolen last week, apparently thieves in my neghtbor hood ran out of Prius to attack. I appreciated the video you guys did. It helps.
I used to work for a Japanese car specialty shop. We were seeing sometimes a couple Prii a week with no cat. The shop was in a pretty affluent area that also had emissions testing, so if people didn’t get shamed into replacing it by their neighbors dirty looks, they’d have to replace it when their tags expired. It was such an issue that any direct fit Prius cats (OEM or otherwise) were basically on indefinite back order. We started having to buy universal fit cats and weld them in, but because PZEV vehicles (like the Prius) are so tight on emissions, even the universal cats that actually worked well enough to keep the CEL off were over $1000.
Bolt cutters make easy work of almost any kind of steel wire or aircraft cable. The only real option for stopping thieves is to make the cat inaccessible.
@@xPRODIGYxGAMER well they would have bolt cutters because if this is what you do regularly you'd know about the common deterent methods like the cables. Just like how burglars tend to carry lockpicks or slim Jim's or prybars.
@@xPRODIGYxGAMER Why would you assume they wouldn't ? They are literally out there to steal whatever they can get their hands on, why would you think they wouldn't have one of the most critical tools needed for breaking into facilities ? lmao I said it because any thief who is out there stealing cats isn't typically out there with just 1 tool. They typically have a few tools with them, like a sawsall for cutting cats, bolt cutters for cutting locks and a screwdriver for jimmying doors/steering columns. The kind of people stealing cats aren't just walking around on their feet usually, they roll up in a car and have whatever tools they could possibly need to break into a place with them. If they see a car lot full of cars and it's only measure is a locked gate with a masterlock on it, they will use bolt cutters to snip through the lock in seconds. Every thief that's remotely good at their "job" has the minimal essential tools on them at any given time while they are working. A guy isn't just walking down the street with a sawsall and looking to steal 1 cat and go home. lol. They are out there to grab as many as they can as quickly as they can and as quietly as they can. That usually means they end up scouting out lots and places like that often have gates chained up with a masterlock or chainlink fence. Any decent thief will always have bolt cutters on them.
Man, you guys forgot the absolute BEST way to prevent your cat from being stolen. All you really have to do, is remove it before a thief gets to it and replace it with a test pipe. Then, you can sell it yourself and be all the better.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq I am actually not subject to those, idk about the rest of you guys. I live in Minnesota, and go to school in Mississippi. Car is registered in MN
A trick I seen online is to weld old drill bits along the exhaust. That idea is since the drill bits are hardened steel, the saw blades will get dull trying to cut through the drill bits on the exhaust.
@@bradensmith888 i disrespectfully disagree with urs as well, maybe take a look into how hardening and softening of metals works before u disagree with people who are indeed right
@cheesygerit2299 Here is the research to back my claim: "High carbon steels contain 0.60-1.0% carbon and 0.30-0.90% manganese. They are extremely hard and strong, but also have poor weldability and are difficult to weld without cracking. Once heat treated, these are extremely hard and brittle."
Mine got REAL close to being stolen about a year and a half ago. Saws all blade broke halfway thru the second cut. Immediately got it welded back together, self-installed a guard and been good since.
The cheapest thing to do is just straight pipe it. Honestly, they should make you show ID and the title to the car the converter came from. Treat them like they are ALL stolen. Also that cat strap wasn't duct tape. It's called tiger patch and it's a fiberglass product that melts to the exhaust. It's actually very durable.
Just before the 08 housing market crash as copper prices started to match gold prices, folks were ripping all of wire out of newly constructed houses and one even tried to get some from a close by power substation (didn't work well). In order to scrap Romex we had to show proof that we got it honestly like an electricians license and business license. There was never a great system, but it did calm the thefts down a lot
manufactures should just etch the vin on new cars and like you said , you have to show proof of ownership or lease/loan paperwork that proves it’s your cat. The problem is this is how junk yards make money, they recycle all those parts. But I agree with your first statement, the epa emissions stuff is bs , I’d rather just be catless
Well if you've ever been to a scrap yard you'd already know they require an ID unlike voting in a democratic state. As far as a title goes when's the last time you've given your title if you have one to a mechanic so they can copy it... I'm gonna guess never because every part of your car is recyclable not just the cat and somebody is making money off your old parts.
Download Monster Legends now and start collecting the new The Walking Dead Monsters: monsterlegends.onelink.me/X4Sc/sept22us
Thumbs down! STOP WITH THE SCAMVERTISING!!!
Neither of my vehicles came with a catalytic converter. Good thing they're both more than 25 years old too.
@@ja_ chill It’s a sponsorship! Probably part of the paid deal
Your using the grinder wrong guy
nah donut really sold out
My cat went missing once but she showed up for breakfast the next morning. Not sure my wife would let me weld a rebar cage onto it, but I'll give it a go! Thanks Donut.
this comment wins
This comment is so confusing
Pun potential prevails potently
@@WajihDiCaprio Come on man, how high are you? Even Alabama got it
How do you get the precious metals out the cat
The most startling thing I learned from this video is that the Chrysler Sebring has at least a single redeeming quality in that most people wouldn't know where the catalytic converter is located...
good thing i have the clone XD good ol dodge avenger cant even get to my own battery
My 2000 grand Cherokee is the same way, kinda love it
@@cristianfmendez until you work on it haha
A lot of new cars are like that now too. Buddy of mine works as a tech at a Honda dealer and he showed me where the cats are on the Honda HRV… unless you feel like removing the entire transmission, you ain’t getting to em.
@@DriveWayMafia eh, it’s old enough where all it needs is a safety inspection so it doesn’t matter anymore
The bigger issue is that there is even an industry for these. As a wrecker/recycler, if you're taking in dozens of cats a week from the same tweaker, week after week, and all of them are cut out/not unbolted, and with no rust perforation/impact damage/rattling substrate (ie natural end of life, not a "fresh" unit), then you have to know you're taking in stolen cats. Go after the people knowingly buying stolen cats and you'll dry the demand up. That's why marking the cats with the VIN is good, with the idea that the recycler will be able to check if it's stolen- but that system is predicated on the assumption the recycler bothers to check, and that there's some kind of centralized database.
The fuck is a vin on a cat going to do?? 🤣 just smooth it out or get rid of the fkn vin not that hard to do. You can’t go after people buying the stolen cars bc it’s stupid! There’s always people who are going to buy it.
A lot of these get sent overseas. Especially if it's more of a gang than a lone tweaker stealing them. They pack them into shipping containers, and each container can be worth hundreds of thousands.
Best deterrent Massive prison sentences !
@@barryhill1044 over a cat? Nah man that’s being dramatic. Rapist get less of a sentence. It should be a heavy fine with 3-5yr sentence I think that’s fair.
Can't buy or sell a used CAT legally in TX anymore.
I lost mine to a thief and it took forever for a new one to come in... so being insane I did the following. Bought a cat shield, they bolt onto the frame using security screws so you don't have to weld it. Engraved my VIN and stolen on it THEN hit it with some high temp bright orange spray paint, Then attached one of those alarms to the cat shield itself. If some asshole gets through all of that then I guess he deserves it.
They stole thousands cats. It's a huge business. Do you think engraving "stolen" and your VIN will stop them ? 🙂
@@nicecobra1991 any thief could in time get through anything, its about making yours less appealing. Why would a thief risk spending easily 10 times longer trying to get to my cat which is bright orange and covered in STOLEN and my vin number when he could just drive down the street to a hundred unprotected ones?
@port nut A legit shop will show you the damaged parts. You can either take them or give them to the shop to dispose
@@johnryan6422 You don't have to outrun the cheetah, just the gazelle next to you.
@port nut Wait, it just “disappeared” before a new one was ordered? That’s wild how did they even try to justify themselves to you?!
Remember unless you park in a empty field there is always another car close by that a thief will target. You just need to make it unappealing for the thief. We had a Tundra customer that lost 3 cats in 2020. After the third one he put a blinking Led on the bottom of his truck(it does not do anything except light up the ground a little). He has not had one stolen since.
Sometimes the easiest solution is also the cheapest. Thieves definitely don't want any extra attention so will usually go after the easiest target with the least obstacles as thieves are also generally lazy.
Oooh, a blinking red light! What a great idea. The thief now doesn't know if it's an alarm, an explosive device, or just a light.
Does this not slowly drain that battery tho? Just wondering not trying to disprove you
@@Shot-by-brandon plenty of alarm systems have a blinking LED on the dash. If you let it sit long enough it will, but you recharge the battery every time you drive. So just don't let it sit.
@@Shot-by-brandon a small 3v blinking LED light will take about 100 days to drain your car battery to the point where it won't start your car.
My wifes converter got stolen off her prius while in the "attended" airport lot. I ended up driving two hours there to meet her and then driving her car back to the local dealer for repairs. I wore ear protection (muffs). I should have brought earplugs AND muffs. I knew it was going to be loud but I didn't know just how loud. Guys on Harleys were swiveling their heads around looking for some giant beast with huge pipes only to see a tall guy hunched over in a tiny prius with a pissed-off look on his face.
That’s hilarious
I call bs on that one, my dads V10 excursion got the cat stolen and it was loud yes but I never needed hearing protection. How loud could that tiny Hybrid motor possibly be?!
@@JustALad more compression a 10:1 compression will be louder then a 8:1 compression
@@JustALad He probably forgot to swap his tampon and been all hormonal.
My Saab was loud as hell too when the exhaust snapped off at the header. I thought I was gonna be deaf by the time I got it to the shop and it was only 2 miles away. The resonance was unbelievable. Felt like the fillings were going to vibrate out of my teeth and had a headache later.
something you guys failed to mention is that thieves are opportunists. The cable contraption is secure, sure, but it also looks like enough of a pain in the ass that any thief that sees it is just going to NOPE out of there, too much work, too much risk of getting caught.
Never underestimate the tenacity of a crackhead
That and they cut it off up on a hoist it was super convenient, if I've gotta lay on the ground worming my way around under a car I would move on
Yeah but it also looks like a huge mess that would make noise while driving and potentially snag on anything else under your car. And its ugly.
Many thieves have bolt cutters in their tool bag. If these guys knew anything about theft then they would have cut through those cables in seconds. Better yet cut the bolts holding the contraption together. The best device is probably the motion alarm. Everyone ignores alarms except for the person who has an alarm. Also, thieves won't wait around to see if anyone heard it. They will run.
Any of these will most likely be enough to deter a thief. Any extra work is too much work and they find another car. If they wanted to work hard then they would get a real job.
It's true, thieves are opportunists. You just want to make things difficult enough for them, that they choose another victim. Think about it, that's the point of locks. I'm sure you've all watched the channel Lock Picking Lawyer. But the truth is, a crackhead isn't going carry a bunch of lockpicking tools with him to break into cars or houses. They're going to choose the unlocked car or house.
I worked in an auto repair shop until I recently retired. I had many opportunities to replace stolen catalytic convertors. My favorite theft attempt was a late model Ram truck towed in with the driveshaft cut in half.
Justin is such a great addition to the team!! Hes so chill and less 'over the top' like some other hosts. Not that being ott is a bad thing.
He’s really coming into his own! He was a little to himself when he first started. But he’s gotten so good at being behind the camera.
Funny you say that cause he used to be over the top too and trying too hard to impress the viewers, that was a turn off for me. But, now I’ll give him a chance he’s more composed now.
If hes the guy that did the Miata clutch episodes yeah chill dude very informative the way he explains things
Yeah! Black Nolan rules...
@@BongChong69 no that's Zack Jobe with the money pit miata episodes.
The problem I have with the cat clamp is if the cables get caught on something while you’re driving
I made my own cat clamp at home (I literally tied a 10m cable around the exhaust) and even when riding through the branches in the orchards I didn't notice any more branches caught (but I tied the cable closer around the exhaust than with the cat clamp).
in my opinion, this is the best solution - make it stupidly hard for thieves.
Plus, I'd say more catalytic converter thefts are in cities.
@@bmxrichard21 Im sure the second they get under the car and see that they move on.
put a metal plate under the cat clamp. if it's done right and tucked under there it will be fine and is reversable. or just get a car where the cat isn't easy to get to like the Sebring.
2 solutions. 1 dont hit shit on the road and 2 dont go off the road
it'd work really well with a shield over it for complete overkill
We've had cat theives mistake the resonator as the cat at the dealership I work at. Kind of hilarious that they don't know what they're taking
Well...they're the kind of people who don't know what new narcotic they're taking will probably turn them into an addict.
@@h8GW 💀 Fentanyl 💀
Happens. My friend was sending his old Golf to the scrap, so he removed the cat because he had heard it's worth some money. When he showed it to me I nearly fell over laughing. Yeah, it was the resonator instead.
To be fair, a lot of them do look identical to converters.
@@TheShadowArtCom what model golf was it?
Any additional protection is better than nothing. A thief is looking for a quick score, if they see something that'll take time, they'll move on to the next.
People outside of China have also discovered uses for paladium.
Yeah, you cannot steal-prove anything, since in the end, when they put in enough effort, material and time, they will get it. As you do not have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the guy beside you^^ On that subject matter... I have a bear lock installed in my car, which is a steel rod going down into the gear box and locking the gears. You can still drive the car, but you cannot shift an stealing a car in reverse is probably not fun and a bit obvious...and I like to park it against a wall ;-)
Of course, you can pick the lock or drill it out, but this takes time and when the next score it just around the corner...why do it?
It's like that joke about how if you and another guy are being chased by a bear, you don't need to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun the other guy.
They think like rapists
I would never install any loose fitted cables under my truck looping around the frame and exhaust… if they snagged on anything while im cruising down my camp road or any dirt road it would be catastrophic
I am sitting here, watching this the day after leaving the ER after slicing about 1/2" into my arm with a cutoff wheel that didn't have a guard on it. I've been in the industrial trades for a little over 15 years and thought my amateurish mistakes were behind me. Where I'm going with this is that you used a cutoff wheel without gloves or a guard. We've all been there and I'm not the hall monitor type, but a lot of kids watch these shows and it would be AWESOME if Donut set an example on RUclips for the use of proper PPE. After my 3rd trip to the ER from the shipyard to have some steel drilled out of my eye with a rotary burr, I don't touch my grinder without a face shield, safety glasses, ear protection, and gloves. Even though I had all of that on, the lack of a guard on the grinder negated the other precautions I had taken on this one. Don't take shortcuts. All of mine are made in privacy, but the next generation is gonna see yours and copy them. Sorry, I'll stop now. Love the channel lol.
Quick advice, lose the gloves when dealing with anything spinning.
I appreciate where you’re coming from, but here’s another perspective. You’re a wise, 15-year-seasoned tradie, VERY likely seen countless warnings, safety messages, chilling stories and graphic injuries, yet you JUST got out of the hospital for the very thing you’re chastising Donut for. By self-admission it took three previous injuries for you to change your ways to wear face/eye PPE.
Kids watching these videos don’t remove guards and not wear PPE because they saw their favourite RUclipsrs doing the same… They do so for the same reasons you did/didn’t remove a guard or wear PPE. The only difference to be made comes from actively educating, not just demonstrating by example. Everyone is quick to jump to the PSA’s immediately after they have made the a mistake, irrespective of commonsense or countless other warnings.
I’m all for safety messages, but don’t chastise Donut for “not setting an example”. People will do what they want to do, warnings or otherwise, but only active education will help naivety; no amount of example will help carelessness or complacency.
good call. the guards are not in the way, you just have to not be lazy and move it if you need to for the job. removing and defeating safety devices way more amateurish than armatures want to believe. If your doing the same dangerous thing over and over (working with power tools in this case) its not a case of if but when shit goes wrong. the true pro realizes this and does everything possible to protect themselves. Take off loose items, tie back long hair, wear a dust mask and safety goggles. wear ear protection. take off rings and jewelry. Always assume the cut will kickback. Double up on jacks, throw a spare tire under there, etc. in the words of Wu Tang, Protect yo Neck!
@@tOSdude Huh, the more you know. Wouldnt have even thought about that until i saw this comment tbh. cheers
Been in sheetmetal union for over 20 years now. I did the same thing back in the winter. 24 stitches. Just when we think we are to good to make dumb mistakes the universe reminds us no one is immune to poor saftey practices. Hope you heal up and get back to the grind soon. Lol no pun intended
Those cables looked like they could vibrate like hell while driving.
not to mention catch on anything ont he road.
They would rattle with the exhaust and also slap with wind and road conditions
They don't. Put them on when my Tundra's cats were stolen. Worked great, but every time I went into a shop, the mechanic would call his buddies to look at this thing and laugh. Hey, my cats were never stolen again. Only bitch was when I needed to take them off and they had rusted and I needed to use an angle grinder in my driveway.
Could be guilty of snagging while wheeling.
I feel like that alarm would go off all the time while driving
My converter was stolen off of my Tacoma. They cut my transmission line while doing it, too. I had a mechanic install a steel cage around the new one and I think it is enough of a deterrent. The steel is too strong for a sawsall and would take too long for a grinder. The key to me is making sure it will take a long time to remove the converter and, as you all pointed out, make sure it will be too loud.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of mechanics are coming up with ways to help customers protect their catalytic converter since it has become such a problem.
Cat recycling is like donating kidneys, you’ll get a bunch of weird looks if you’re donating more than one
And the buyer won't be asking questions.
I used to bring in 15-20 cats at a time. The only time I got a weird look is when I refused to sell them when I got a low ball price. Buyers don't give a shit where you got your cats all they want is to screw you on the price they pay.
I know guys that make a living buying people dpfs and cats, it’s not weird to have a wagon full of them. Damn good joke tho👍
Hahaha try going to a yard with a truck bed spilling over with them hahaha then you show them a giant stack of titles and they laugh 😂
thieves know where they can go to dump off a bunch at about half the normal price no questions asked.
I think the biggest thing with these devices is that they act as a deterrent so the thief will think your cars too hard and move to the next car which doesn’t have a device fitted.
This right here. Same principle with motorcycle safety: just make your bike harder to pick than the others around it.
@@JMartinsATV The club was the same idea. A determined thief will get your card (usually tow it off). This stops the quick hitter.
Exactly this, same with steering locks. Most of them can be quickly snapped or cut off, but unless you've got a nice enough car (in which case they'll probably need to also know how to get it started whether that be key theft, hotwire, or wireless key jacking) they'll move onto the much easier next car. A thieves most important thing is time, they can be as loud as they want if it only takes a few seconds.
Like using The Club back in the day.
The best way to escape a bear. Is runing faster than the guy at your side
Would have liked to have seen the cat strap actually heated to the exhaust to see how hard it would be to remove. I'd imagine it wouldn't just peel off like in their example to get to the other side. Regardless I guess the cat clamp would be better if you're paying the same price.
From what it looked like, on this particular car, you could just cut from the top side and ignore the strap altogether... What was actually connecting the cat to the strap was just that tiny metal strip..
@@prdprdprdprdprdel If the strap was heated and went through the "curing" period, the strap would've been stuck to the catalytic converter. So if you cut the cat like they did in the video, the strip would still be connected to the cat, so you'd have to cut the strap.
@@natendragon7172 and it would be harder to sell with a melted metal strap that probably would never come off
@@TheRhinoGoss People just want the precious metals inside the cat... No one cares what is stuck to the outside.
@@natendragon7172 It's melted plastic. if you pull, it'll snap off.. pretty sure that if you drove around for some time, it would be so brittle it might eventually fall off by itself...
Being that the catstrap wasn't installed properly it deserves a legitimate test. It actually seems like a good design.
Agreed
I was expecting to see dozens of comments like this. Not a fair test of the CatStrap at all.
Right. They don't install it properly and are only able to defeat it because it wasn't properly installed.
I would just weld a few 304 stainless bars parallel with the cat, have you ever tried to cut 304 stainless with a sawzall? Lol. Edit: removed problem solving information 😉.
Well don't tell them to get carbide lol
@@tristenboatman8581 your right thieves are usually really dumb, I edited the comment.
@@tristenboatman8581 now you're the one giving away infi👀
@@tristenboatman8581 You just told them too. :P
that's what uhaul does
11:30 Remember, the fiberglassed/duct tape/cable thing also would have been bonded to the cat. Thus, it could not be pulled back after one end was cut. This would have increased the time.
They also clamped it on which would secure the cables from flapping around. They should have done it as the manufacturer directed it
If you get through the cables on one side then you just cut the pipe on the other side and the cables slide out.
But I would have much rather seen this properly bonded.
Grab rip done. If you've ever used Duct Tape for ducting, you know it's not bulletproof security. And yes it was "bonded" the same way (the tape melted to the ducting because of heat running through the duct)
Claiming the tape melting is bonding is ridiculous... The tape melted to the surface. It did not "bond". There is a difference.
@@fmo94jos8v3
Yeah, pretty sure it wasn't plain old duct tape. More like muffler tape. Which is different. I've used both. Duct tape won't melt and stick at all. It'll just melt and get hard and burn through and crumble.
Muffler tape, however, will form a pretty decent bond. It is also designed to stick through heating. You can easily seal mufflers and pipes with large holes with muffler tape.
And no, they never once ran the engine to bond the tape in any way.
@@shaunofthedead3000 The manufacturer claimed it would bond, not me.
I was working at a body shop when the pandemic started and so many Prius cars came in with stolen converters. They sound hilarious
Theft didn't start during the pandemic... Muffler shops have nothing to do with "body shops"
@@Cisco13 What?
Wife at a Toyota dealership in south Florida and heard at least one a month
The big question here is who brings a car into body shop for a muffler issue?
@@eurosonly aparently someone who drives a prius
My cat converter literally got stolen 2 days ago. This is why I watched this. I wanted to know what the best option was for anti-theft. I did file a police report and a claim with my insurance. And now I'm trying to find options to help me keep the replacement safe. Thank you for this video.
If you replaced with with an aftermarket cat it will be safe. Thieves only want the OEM cats.
No the machine that can convert cats... Whyyyy
@@trevorsyversen9956 those guys are all drunk and are high when they work. u think they will notice an aftermarket eBay vs a oem? hell no LOL.
@@sumgi1537 right they don't give a fukk lmfao
This happened to our family at a terrible time too. We don't drive crazy, so we have comprehensive insurance (in-case we hit your car). It was out of pocket and just horribly expensive and inconvenient. Old 2001 Honda Accord parked in our apartment complex. You can look at our car and tell that we're not exactly living the American Dream yet. I understand a lot of crime because I struggle too, but these people cause so much pain for a relatively little gain. I want to break their knees with a hammer if i see somebody sawing under a car.
I installed my own cat theft deterrent. Long tube headers and catless Y pipe.
Based
Exactly can’t steal what isn’t there I deleted my cat and put a flowmaster on my bronco.
How do you pass smog inspection?
@@Esuper1 you live in florida
@@Esuper1 My Honda passes emissions without a cat. Barely. But a pass is a pass.
I'm not a fan of slamming cars, but living in an area where Catalytic Converter theft is off the charts genuinely makes me consider an airbag system. Can't chop my shit off if you can't even get a jack under it. 🤷♂
Some bag systems cost near the same as a cat too
@@SALEENS7GTR5 just go static 😂
I’ll still cut take yo shit 😂😂
Use the air system while the thief is underneath it.
Who said you have to get the jack under the car to jack it up? I would just jam that jack in your plastic grill and lift that car up by the hood. Now you need a new grill , rad, and hood :D
You know what feels amazing to know? That you have a car where the Catalytic Converters are inside the Engine Bay
I had my cat stolen off my motorhome twice in 8 months. Both times it was stolen from different storage lots with camera's , iights , and fenced in parking. Each time it was $2800. to replace. I bought the new cat and put flanges on each end of it and on the exhaust pipes going to it. Now it takes 10 min's to remove or install so while it is in the storage lot I just remove it and take it home where it is locked up in my garage.
I had my cat stolen at work off my Tacoma and a block away from PD station. PD wouldn't even come take a report, I had to make one on line. Bottom line I had to wait almost 2 months for parts but had the skid plate type protection installed..it's very heavy duty and hopefully deterrent enough.
Great demonstrations!
Stop bad talking cops who are you going call when you need help ?😉
Sounds like you live in Chicago
@kip24u Also could be N'Orleans.
@@Smart-Towel-RG-400 hes not talking bad about the police, hes saying that his local station needs a new receptionist.
@@Smart-Towel-RG-400 you’re right, who else could show up hours late and tell him they can’t do anything to help?
I’ve overall found rust to be the most effective anti theft device. If your exhaust has been laying in a ditch since 2018 no one can steal it!
My uncle left his exhaust in a ditch back in 1997. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still there to this day.
I like the idea of copper lines installed parallel with the cat. Fill those with permanent dye/fluorescent liquid and pressurize it. Also add a GoPro, so you can upload the footage later.
Pressurized pepper spray
I would say some shielded copper wire connected to a high voltage capacitor from a microwave oven. Only other thing to have to deal with is where to dump the body.
Activate a tank of salt water goes everywhere and the electric cattle fence leads drop into the water. They would be soaking wet when that happens
@@duckmyass Holy moly premeditation at it's finest, idk about that one holding up in court my dude
@@Vestige98 That's the reason you have to find a way to dispose of the body. Frankly meat grinders and a local pig farm are probably your best option.
My sister had her first care stolen. It was a early 2000's Honda CR-V. They took anything that wasn't bolted down. They even stole my niece's car seat. I'm pretty sure she was one of the people in 2021 that was part of the statistics mentioned in the start of the video.
When I purchased my 2018 Mazda CX-5 I noticed when the dealer did my free oil change they sent me a video of them doing an inspection of the underside of my car. There is a big plate of metal under the car protecting many parts including the Catalytic Converter. Apparently it is standard on some cars but an option you have to pay for on other vehicles like the Toyota Tacoma I was looking at before I purchased my Mazda.
I have a catshield on my Prius and have parked in some sketchy as hell places. I've found damage to the undercarriage once from a poorly placed Jack but other than that, the shield wasn't touched. My version has custom screws and bolts to pre-existing holes in the frame. Cost me $130.00
What brand did you use?
I think a great protector would be sort of like a car alarm, but instead of making a useless noise, the alarm activates bright, motion sensing, strobe lights, that are mounted to the bottom of the car. The thieves would have to work blind, with an electric saw. My bet is that they'd rather move on. (edit: maybe it also glitter bombs them).
@RARE WORLD I hope your car is protected, but I'm not sure it is. I asked a cop what they thought about cameras. They said in this context they usually don't get anything. Even if the camera is pointed right at them, they're probably wearing a mask. They didn't say anything about license plates, but I imagine getting that on camera could be useful. It might be hard to prove their car is related to the person under your car though. Also, I noted that the police blotter in my town put most of the thefts in the middle of the night, when cameras won't be able to see much.
You could instal a system that sprays superglue mixed with fine powdered trash on them.
Mark Rober should engineer the glitter bomb, maybe with fart spray to boot.
Or maybe one that sprays them with some type of metal, maybe copper or bronze, and it could be tiny little spheres, and instead of spraying them they get launched really really fast, perhaps some kind of combustion mechanism could propel them - maybe a tube of some sort to direct them towards the thieves? I dunno but if someone could figure out something like this I bet we would have a lot less thieves
@1N2 how is the alarm system holding up is it annoying or sensitive too much??
The bad part about the wired up cat protector is I imagine it would probably rattle and make a ton of noise it would be like having a loose exhaust hanging
That’s what I was thinking when I saw it
Which is why you tighten it??
Yer also the securing bolts on the plates looked like a major weak spot, but agree first thing I thought was rattle.....
TradeWithRichard100
My brother used to get metal plates laser cut that cost less than $15 and fitted them to 100's of Uber cars in London. Went from getting 10 - 20 stolen a week to 0. Not a single theft. The plate took 5 minutes to fit, I installed about 100 of them myself. Just used some security bolts that snapped off and left a round surface when tighetened, and red locktite. They looked like the CatSheild products but much cheaper and stronger.
Like to hear more about how you did this.
Prior experience at a Muffler shop here and I’ve installed these as well as custom fabricated cages. Only losers attack cars who won’t fight back. The Cat-Clamp was definitely the best option for customers and cost effective at about $200-$250 installed.
Reminds me of what happened to my old car.
I had a 03 neon, I had done really crappy diy work to it and one of the things I did was gut out the cat. (I didn't care about the car, it was something to have fun with)
One day my car was louder than it was before and I looked under the car and saw the empty cat casing laying on the ground. After I realized what happened I laughed my ass because I had given them that false hope of a score.
Still sucks cuz you need to weld it back in
@@faxxzc I didn't bother, I just removed the rest of the exhaust and ran it like that for a short time until the transmission blew up
@@Slightly_Happy average neon shenanigans
i feel like the cat strap wasnt given as good as a chance since it wasnt really installed and it was cut where the cables were being held to the shaft meaning the cables werent able to freely move
But for 200 its the same price as the cat clamp. So even if it did work as advertised not really a recommendation either.
How else would you install it? If its just some high temp adhesive, the second the sawzaw hits it it will come off and then you can just maneuver the blade around it. If ts clamped then your always gonna have that point of no movement somewhere. At first I actually thought it was legit but the longer the video went on and the more I could think about it, my mind changed. Having only one cord around isnt enough, your always gonna be able to maneuver around it.
@@CrossWindsPat Not properly installed so this video is shit.
The strap is pointless
A theif would cut right next to the clamp too so whats your point?
Wouldn’t the alarm thing just melt? Or the batteries explode with the heat of the exhaust?
that first one could be cut off with wire cutters without even setting it off.
I guess you could use some heat resistant wrap like they use for headers but idk
Im guessing they planned for that when designing a product that goes on your exhaust
some People use zipties to hold up their exhaust when the rubber mounts fail the back end isnt too hot for some types of plastic
I think the cat strap would've done much better if it was installed like it's supposed to be. Cinching it down with clamps removed the ability for the internal cables to move allowing them to be cut
Exactly what I was thinking. You shouldn’t be able to peel it away either
I have a cat shield (big aluminum plate for about $220) plus a vibration detecting alarm like they used. I fastened the alarm behind the front license plate holder so it's hidden. Those things will melt on your Cat! Between the two, I think it's a decent deterrent. The alarm makes a little more attention be focused on them, and the plate slows them down.
Thank you. I had no confidence in that China plastic standing up to exhaust heat.
Is it on the exhaust pipe or what?
Always use the guard on grinders. It just takes a slip or disk fragment to learn the lesson.
Agreed. A friend chopped his kneecap in half doing exactly what they did in the video.
Very important lesson! The guard should not be removable at all. My uncle almost killed himself once. Somehow the disk screw undid itself while cutting iron tubing and the disk got fullspeed slingshotted right into his upper nose (between his eyes). He was using big bulky protective glasses (god bless) that literally exploded with the impact of the disk, but really slowed the disk down. Still, the disk managed to shoot downwards vertically after hitting the glasses (the direction it was spinning) and sliced open his nose and lips in two and luckily it continued straight into the ground and didn't hit any other part of his body. It didn't do enough damage to be life threatening but it costed him a rush to the hospital, A LOT of stitches and a full day of extreme panic to the family and himself.
Now everything is fine but he now was a vertical scar in the middle of his face. He learned the lesson and now everytime he uses angle grinders he uses the best quality disks possible (f*ck money vs heath), all the protections and guards and most of the times wears his freaking motorcycle helmet too.
@@azenyr exactly. Glad it wasn't fatal. Yes, same with motorcycle helment. Only time I would ever have it off, is after maintenance, around the neighborhood to listen for odd noises
@@azenyr Damn. Thanks. That's all I can say to start out. After that, if this is applicable and helpful, do use Thread Locker for situations like that. I'm not sure how strong the common Blue one is or how often (if at all) it will need re-applied, but it's helpful for a lot of things - especially here.
Alright but during the catstrap test they clamped it to the cat & exhaust causing the cable to also get clamped down and couldn't move the way it was supposed to. Not saying that would drastically change the time but it definitely makes the cables easier to cut through.
Yeah, they didn't set that one up correctly at all. Its suppose to be bonded to the exhaust, not clamped on.
The second one would be easy to defeat by cutting the bolts holding the clamps.
@@alchemystudiosink1894 hahahahahaha
Oddly though they come with these metal "zip-ties" that the crew used to install. Maybe you're not supposed to tighten them down all the way so that the cables can still move freely inside of their sleeve, which is really the engineering wizardry behind those.
Exactly. Also they are doing this jacked up in a shop. Like to see them try on the ground upside-down in the cold or rain
@@drinklifeup well I would asume that you use them for the installation, because you have to drive at least once so the adhesive kicks in, and bounds the strap to the metal, then you can remove the clamps again, so yeah, incorrectly installed/tested, since it comes down to how good it get's stuck on the strap, since you could just saw up > down, depending on the car modell and just rip it from the strap, without even cutting the wires, if it's not binding that well.
I’ve install the cat clamp on a lot of customers cars but wondered how it would hold up. Thanks for making this video
I don't really live in a high theft area, but close enough to it to where the crime sometimes travels to us, and I am thinking of putting a cat clamp on my truck and the wife's van. Is there any consideration I should make in how I wrap the cable? Like I would hate to wrap it around something important and piss off my mechanic because I made their day twice as long.
@@Blueshirt38 I'm the same way. A few hundred bucks just for peace of mind. I did it on my prius since I park it in the driveway.
Also if a thief sees any of these installed, they are probably gonna move on to the next target which is quicker to steal.
Most of the cat theives around here are jacking the whole car first, driving it a few miles then stripping it near a hobo enclave with lots of busty RV's nearby, and then left on the side of the street.
Few of our thieves are stealing cats on site, prefering to take the whole enchilada someplace where they have tools, space, and a dump plan.
Cops see them all the time at work in their Bartertown villages at night with Petzl headlamps on, working in teams. They just cruise on.
That's like, the point.
Yeah... 3 seconds to take a look, then 5 seconds to move to the next vehicle. Lot less time than messing with any security devices.
After seeing this it will piss the thief off and he will damage something else just because he can
@@WindFireAllThatKindOfThing Wow sounds like theft in America is a few steps up.
Respect for how you guys do your ads. As a token of my appreciation I've been watching once then I restart the video and let it play without skipping ads.
A determined thief can do whatever, the idea is that Cat theft usually takes 30 seconds. Slow them down and it might not be worth the trouble.
The only thing that can stop determined thieves is lethal booby traps, highly illegal or armed guards. Legal but cumbersome and expensive. If one has the money to pay for armed guards and insurance for same, one can move into a house with a locked garage, high fence or both
@@chrismc410 the cat theft usually happens in a public parking lot
The best theft device is to spend a night in your car. When you hear the thief slide under your car go ahead and pull out of the parking spot and then make sure you back back into the parking spot just in case you forgot something.
and make sure that all four tires go over the speed bumps fully.
@Michael Lavieri OP has plausible deniability but you going straight to jail for that.
Good luck with that when your tires are hanging in the air on the jack. It calls "differential" I think
@@MrNiceCobra it’s not that it doesn’t happen but most of them aren’t lugging around a jack
😂
I work at a shop that shares a parking lot with our used car sales building who also happens to run budget rentals out of. I've honestly lost count of how many cats are stolen off these budgets. Subsequently we have a fleet account who primarily has the Chevy express vans who have custom fitted cat shields made for each van they have. We mocked up a template and welded together multiple shields so they would be bolt on and removable when the time is needed.
When you cut the strap you cut it close to the ring it was attached to, which makes the wires inside of it unable to move which defeats the whole purpose of the strap, when its bonded to the exhaust how it should be, the wires inside Will have free movement and the saw Will probably have a much harder time to get through
Right? They went through all the trouble of explaining how the product worked then half assed the install and were able to get it off because it wasn't done correctly. When bonded to the exhaust you wouldn't be able to just cut the ties and have it fall out of place.
The cat strap comes with some small U shaped bits... more like little C channel pieces or something... shaped like a ] that are supposed to go in the clamps to keep the clamp from tightening down on the cables... still holds the strap, but keeps the clamp off the cables. They didn't install these.
@@mccore2429 They can't run the car to get it to bond because the car is dead. I guess they could hit it with a torch?
@@Idiomatick this doesnt matter bcoz they tested a product with incorrect installation, would be better to skip review this product as its far away from a fair test
@@taruxy true
Sister had her CAT stolen in the middle of a well lit private parking garage during the day in Dallas. It was covered in Cameras and we got ahold of the footage. They had a pretty unique way, using a stolen tow truck they lift up cars, 2 people go under and take the CAT, and they were in and out in under a minute. They did a total of 12 cars that day and because it was a tow truck the security guard let them in and out without asking any questions.
OK this is one of the funniest Cat steals ever, We had this new Citroen C4 and had it up on a display ramp a group decided to try and steal the cat off this car. They first cut a chunk of the under tray and then the first section of the exhaust then cut the middle of the exhaust and running off with it. The morning the sales people arrive and noticed the C4 with the section of the exhaust missing. So they get me to look at it to see what it needs, They tell me that someone stole the cat off it and when I see it I imminently laughed because they actually stole the middle muffler off it so new under tray and middle muffler later all good to go.
Damnit I have a car with an aftermarket exhaust with a middle muffler instead of a cat. I honest thought to myself "surely no one would be stupid enough to try and steal a muffler one day" thanks for reminding me people are idiots
@@deathwizxx If you create something idiot proof, then someone will create a better idiot.
Would be curious to see how the cat clamp wouldve hold up to bolt cutters / steel cable cutters. Typically they can get through cables like that with little effort- And do so quietly.
Bolt cutters require a wide range of motion though to operate. Unless the thief takes the whole car and puts it up on a lift, thats not what theyre using
That makes sense, but a big part of this is time and effort. I had the cat stolen out of my element in a mall parking lot. Most of these thieves only have a saw, and if they see that it’s gonna take more time and effort they usually just skip to the next one, especially in a situation like mine, in public. Making it look challenging and confusing is sometimes the best deterrent!
Keep in mind the average garbage pail human out stealing cats is thinking of bringing a Sawzall and spare blades, bolt cutters would not seem practical unless they've run into one of these before.
@@alexandermorris2335 I get what you mean but you could still just use the bolt cutters horizontally instead of vertically if you were under a car. But regardless I doubt anybody who steals cats carries bolt cutters. Either way I'd imagine that the cat clamp system would be enough to deter someone because it makes it harder to remove. Unless it was on a specific vehicle they were targeting because it has a particularly valuable cat.
@@desertsavagery don't underestimate these thiefs. Some of them can be quite resourceful
Depending on what car you have determines on how much it cost to replace the cat. I replaced the cat on my mom's van for under $200. Hardened steal would be ur best bet to make a cage out of. The harder the steel the longer it takes to cut.
true but the harder the steel, the more brittle it becomes and could possibly crack
hardened steel also doesn't weld nice.
@@StanleyKubick1 it might not but it can be done
Or you could make them form fit an then harden them you fit it
It depends on the state you live in, too. Some states don't care if you install a cheap aftermarket (less effective) cat. But if you live in CA or CO for example, the cats have to be of OE quality, have an EO number, be warrantied for 5 years/50k miles. For some cars there are cheaper California legal cats, but for some cars there's no other option but to buy an OEM cat from the manufacturer. The 5.7L Tundras are one example. No aftermarket CA compliant ones, and the OEM ones from Toyota will run you FOUR GRAND to replace both sides.
What's sad about this is they've been trying to legislate the problem away over the years because people "want something to be done about it", but all of these bills/laws are hopelessly ignorant to what the thieves are actually doing. They address the sale, purchase, and/or tracking of cats with ideas like "limit the sale to dealerships" or "etch the VIN on it" because the ones writing up these stupid bills/laws actually think that all of the thieves want whole intact converters because they can flip them for a profit * as a converter *. 🚫WRONG!⚠ Here's the problem, and they said it in this video (1:48): Only _some_ of the money is in trying to flip a converter intact, and plenty has been done about limiting that. What's not being addressed by any of these laws is most thieves aren't stealing "catalytic converters", they're stealing Rhodium, Palladium, Platinum, and whatever else can be extracted from it. The real money is in the * metals * that can be extracted from them and sold as is, so it doesn't matter how much you regulate the converters, because they all look the same from the other side of a recycling/melting process. VIN numbers, tracing devices, suspicious cutting techniques... all gone. This idea that every stolen converter is just being flipped by a shady mechanic shop that buys them from strangers in the ally and that more converter regulations will put an end to it is just ridiculous 🤦♂. Thankfully some places are finally being a little smarter about it and are looking closer at the ones who can actually extract precious metals like recyclers and places that will pay out for the raw metals. Sure it's hard to catch a thief in the night, but last I checked Rhodium isn't something you can sell to just anybody so you already know where it's going, and places that are in the business of dealing with precious metals have to be getting it from somewhere.
sounds like youre insinuating organized crime, which makes sense. but if it is organized crime, theyre working with/paying off the govt
@@carlholland3819you know who doesn't pay off the govt or work with gangs though
My two best friends
Smith and Wesson
My neighbour welded barb wire spikes all around his truck's cat converter and exust pipe to prevent thieves from steeling them and it worked. Just the sight of those huge spike sticking out from under his truck is enough to scare away anyone.
I was a 911 dispatcher for a while, and when I worked nights, I could almost always count on hearing from Bob, the guy who was the night security guard at a U-Haul lot where there were hundreds of trucks. The property and lot were HUGE, and basically took up a whole block, so there were endless places that thieves could hop the fence and be under a truck in seconds. We rarely caught them, but did manage to nab a few of them. But seriously, it was like several times a week!
Since it's such a hot spot, you would think that they'd ask officers to park there on their break to keep an eye on things.
@@bwofficial1776 I want to hear that radio call. This is Unit Adam five six, requesting a 10-7(meal break) outside the U haul Yard on 123 Main Street.
I feel like that by clamping the last one down you held the cables in place and they couldn't move with the blade. If it bonded with the glue they could've moved in the strap better most likely.
I cant imagine it would bond well though. It could probably be pulled off still.
Yea, we include in every package u-shaped aluminum channel "clamp collars" 1in length along with instructions to place them under the exhaust clamps which creates a tunnel for the internal cables to move with the blade. Creates a massive difference for cutting. Unfortunately, they didn't installed it with them here. Clamping down directly on top of the cables creates a weak point which is right were he put the sawzall blade.
its still junk
About a year ago I drove on a highway and saw a sawzall on the side of the road just laying there. When I went to retrive it there was some metal shavings and tiny plastic debrie. Some 1 cut a CAt out of some 1s car and left his milwaukee behind. It's been a solid tool.
My boyfriend showed me your yideos about a year ago and because of y'all i've learned so many things about cars. You guys have really made my love for cars grow. Super inspiring, keep it up! SOme of the most welcoming people to the car community. :)
Vice Grip Garage is good too.
@@Lofi.z34 for someone who didn't even know how an engine worked to helping my bf with his project car.. I think they have taught me a few things 😂 but I know a lot of their videos are for fun.. for people that know at that stuff. It's a learning experience for others
@@non1503 I've seen them too! I like them a lot too. Top 3 for sure 😁
@@Lofi.z34 umm, that's not true at all. Some experiments aren't totally scientific but other than that they are very knowledgeable
@@zoepratt1783 Nice here are a couple more channels you and your bf might like. sixtyfiveford fixes cars sometimes and makes all kinds of things and tricks, MrTeslonian for alternative energies things and such(and robots). J Mantzel for being a crazy guy on a island now who make sense "alot" of the time. He made a small solar dozer years ago. and lot of other things.
hope you two can enjoy some of these.
Oh another channel i recently found. Vampire Robot channel. It reminds of a time capsule, but with videos.
We are a forklift dealer in downtown Nashville last year over the course of 6 months we had 108 catalytic converters stolen from our service vans and lifts. Our lot looks like a prison with all the fence and razor wire. Caught them on camera every time. Whether it not Metro PD ever made any arrests is unknown, but doubtful. My personal car was stolen along with a co-workers on the same day by juveniles. Police caught them, they were using my Samsung earbuds and I was tracking the location. I drove by and spooked them accidentally in North Nashville, because the Samsung earbuds don't give a precise location. They sped off after they were confident we weren't following, parked the car downtown, then started walking several miles back to their home. Police intercepted them once they were home with keys and my grandmother's wedding ring I had locked in the glove Box in their pocket. The $4,000 worth of other stuff in my car was not recovered.
Ahh "juveniles" yes ... they seem to commit quite of bit of crime
@@homesteadlife6854 you nailed it lol
bro where the fuck do you live
One might think after the first dozen was stolen, additional measures (like hiring a guard or guard dogs or some kind of active monitoring) would be taken. Even hiring an armed guard would be cheaper than having all those cats stolen
Honestly? Get some German Shepherds and let them roam the lot at night. One of the few ways you're legally allowed to create consequences for thieves.
as a smog tech i hope you saved your paperwork for that catalyst shown at 12:41. with the rebar installed like that is covers up the carb number which we use to verify legality of the catalyst to the vehicle. paperwork and receipts will be needed unless you "know a guy"
love your channel btw. you guys make awesome content. feel free to let me know if you ever want some smog advice.
DON'T have Smog BS in Arizona...also no Disarmament...enjoy your police State 3rd World Country, After taxes and union Fees you make less than " Professional " Burger Flippers
The biggest source of smog in California is Nancy Pelosi's farts. Why do California car owners have to jump through hoops to get their cars tested, while Nancy Pelosi keeps polluting the atmosphere?
@@felipep5581 yep!!! And after the EV mandate no more smog shops as everyone that still has an ICE vehicle and half a brain will move to a free state which will have the added bonus of being able to carry self defense.
Ah yea people selling cats are totally doing it legitimately
Thieves stole my catalytic converters off my 2005 tundra on separate dates, 3 weeks apart. First time they stole passenger cat and I was not home. I woke up to second time and almost caught theives with my 38 special. My truck sits next to my bedroom, It took 5 seconds for each cut. Last words I heard was 'Lets go lets go'. By the time I got out the front door they were gone. Insurance totaled the car. Today (10 months later ) I am installing the Cat Security Shield & extension on my newly purchased 2020 tundra. I am also installing the $30 gimmick alarm for kicks. Thanks guys, great video!!!
Btw, thieves aren't selling to scrap and junkyards generally. I sold cats in '08-'10 and worked in a scrapyard. I don't think we had a single stray cat come in (lol no pun intended). Retail was only paying about $25-$50 per cat. Most of what we got came with entire vehicles.
The refineries were the ones paying $300+ and it's easy to get a connection to them...I personally used the largest auction site to find buyers and emailed them directly for future business.
I work in a scrap yard and we also sell to 3rd party companies who then sell to refineries. We’re not gonna pay top dollar because we have to make a profit. But we still get the strays coming in, in our state we require a title though
The market is organised to collect the platinum. There is no need for parts resellers.
really appreciate the last test, wasnt sure how well metal has been holding up these days
"We're just gonna pretend this resonator is a catalytic converter for the rest of the day"
-Me getting an inspection done
The way I drive, I would be afraid of the cables from the cat clamp getting caught in something I'm driving over and causing havoc to my undercarriage 😂
For the cat clamp cage thingy for the steel cables if you just use a bolt cutter for the cables that attach to the chassis then it would be silent and then you could just Sawzall the rest within a minute or less @donutmedia
I had my Prius cat stolen 2x last year. After the second time I got a cat shield installed. Was $500 but the peace of mind of knowing ain't nobody gonna bother trying to bust out all those rivets etc makes me way more confident to park anywhere. The problem with all the cheaper ones is some idiot might still try and cut it out and still be able to damage the exhaust even if they fail to steal it.
One of my favorite things from this channel is the time bar for the PROMO/ADS , so I know EXACTLY when to stop skipping lol.
My catalytic converter crapped out a couple of years ago. Cost to replace with an OEM at the dealership? Almost $3,000. I took a chance and went on EBay and got one for less than $150. Still working great and passing inspection. If you do decide to replace your own, on your own, be sure to also replace the O2 sensor at the same time.
Did it pass smog?
@@ebsa123123 It did indeed and it's continuing to do so! Mind you I hold my breath every year at inspection time, but so far, so good. Knock on wood!
.
I would suggest that when changing your CC you also change your O2 sensor(s) (number of sensors depends on type and model of car) at the same time. They're cheap relatively speaking, and since they work with the CC you might as well change them also at the same time. Bad O2 sensors can also cause emissions failures.
@@SkyKing1717 I was doing fine with my 65 dollar eBay CC until my smog tech started the visual inspection. He's an old guy with knee issues so he never checks, but hired a young hippy able to work a phone camera. No CARB number in CA, NY, MN, CO can be a problem.
What a great addition to the team Justin is.
I feel like all you really need is something that makes it look like it’s going to be hard to steal. If someone’s going to steal a cat and they see anything that’s gonna make it harder odds are they won’t even try. Great video!
Great video guys. The cat was stolen off our 2nd gen MDX at local tire shop. Maybe a video on a the options for replacement after it has been stolen. Sometimes the vehicle isnt worth the replacement.
Got my cat stolen in 2021 while I was sitting on quarintine after travels.
Ironically thiefs did not stay at home during covid, so thinking about one of these products for the next car.
Great review guys, well appreciated.
Take care!
Well that wasn’t very socially responsible of these criminals!! 😂😂
This is a great video. I install cat clamps at my job all the time and very rarely do we see the same cars get targeted. Cat clamp is a little expensive but definitely worth stopping a theft
How much would it cost for a accord??
@@ebsa123123 most shops charge 1 hour of labor and cost of part
@@nicolasg35 how much is the parts?
@@ebsa123123 $200 to $300
Do these companies include a deterring sticker with their product?
It would be a good idea, like security companies have signs that can deter thieves. Not 100%, but when they are casing a job, they just may pass up a car with a sticker. If it’s an SUV, they would probably just peek underneath. So, IDK. Just a thought.
I think the Cat Strap had a sticker with it. But I ended up just spraying everything with bright orange header paint. You can see it without even getting under the vehicle. So hopefully they'll get under there and think, "Hmm... why is everything day glow orange?"
@@control_issues day-glow orange. 😂👍🏻👍🏻
Did this guy just say a sticker would stop a thief? Lol let's sticker up the border that'll fix the illegal immigration problem.
@@control_issues that's smart AF
the solution is more wealthfare so people arent forced to resort to crime to pay the bills.
I have an Audi A4 B5 1.8T. Its catalytic converter sits next to the engine high up in the engine bay. You would have to open the hood to even get to it. And even then, sawing it off wouldn't be a straightforward job because there's lots of engine components in the way.
It also means it's a two-hour job to replace it when it breaks, but at least it's safe to assume that thieves will not mess with my car 😁
Here's what's so funny to me..... I had a 98 Sebring convertible, and the exhaust busted at the weld bung for the resonater.... I basically had a ghetto cat back exhaust 🤣 I drove it around thinking it sounded like a race car for 6 months before getting it fixed. Ahh, the days of your first car. It deed feel like I gained a few ponies though, could have been placebo from hearing exhaust straight out of the Cat
@port nut reminds me of my childhood. My dad had a '70 Nova, which he took one of his two GIANT Cerwin-Vega tower speakers and fit it in the trunk..... i know he did some kinda fuckery to power them properly, some converter or something. I was too young to actually grasp what he had done, and he ended up pulling the tower out and selling it before I was old enough to really appreciate his backyard ingenuity. Loud and proud, driving like a bat outta hell. I miss that car. Hell, my first trip to the hospital from busting my head open was in the back of that car 🤣 I can still remember the blood stains in the floorboard carpet.
The Cat locker is perfect for work trucks left out in the open. Our shop used to get hit almost every month but haven't since installed. For a regular passenger car i would recommend the skid plate. all our job's priuses has them installed.
One of the mechanisms that people are using to get catalytic converters out from undercars really fast is a rotary blade Cutting tool. They can get a catalytic converter off in about 20 seconds with that and it's on a clamp so everything just gets fed towards the blade
My catalytic converters was stollen just last month from my Acura TSX. Never thought it would happen to my car but nevertheless I’m in the process of getting it replaced. The only thing I know is that once it’s replaced the thieves most likely will not come back because the aftermarket at is not worth much on the street. Only the original one.
Tweakers will still steal it, because if it is worth even $5 they will take it as being enough for a single hit.
@@SeanBZA nah tweaker ain’t going for a AM cat for 5$ they would sooner pawn/sell the tools they have. Unfortunately my family tree is bountiful with meth on one particular side
Thieves won’t know it’s a replacement until they’re already under the car. Sure, the same thieves might not hit your car twice, but there’s a bunch of different thieves out there. Also, in CA, I feel the replacement cat likely has to be OEM. I wonder what happens when OEM is no longer available? Most AM cats aren’t CARB legal.
I think most of these products would deter theft just by being more of a nuisance. Even if you could theoretically get through them it would make it take more time and these thieves have to be quick or risk getting caught. I’m guessing most of them would see these things and immediately give up on the car that has one and move on to another nearby car because it’s not worth it.
Shield would be the best way to go, just make sure its held more than just on 4 easy to match screws. Gotta be screws with special tool needed for them.
Our shop has been contracted to install these products onto all the local FedEx trucks
So far, so good and no chopping!
Good thing the Texas governor also enacted a law that bans catalytic converter sales within the state to junkyards without proof of ownership
Thats helped a lot too
There's also electrified razor wire but that might be frowned upon depending on where you live lol
Yeah thankfully New Jersey banning all second hand Cat sales has severely limited the profitability of that kinda theft just because no respectable junk yard or recycler will take one that is not connected to a car frame.
I’m in Texas and had no idea about this law. It didn’t stop the thieves from taking my cat converter in December ‘22. They must have gone out of state to sell it.
Arizona has a law to
they ship them to oklahoma now.
Best way to save your Catalytic Converter, Remove it yourself!
Mo powah baybeh !!
what a great way to donate more money to your local government I'm sure they'll appreciate all the fines you incur
@@Dream146 my local government don't give a shit
@@Dream146 nah, that's just a myth. I run my bike without catalytic converter and never heard any of those government money laundering crap
🤠🤠🤠🤠
I had my catalytic converter stolen last week, apparently thieves in my neghtbor hood ran out of Prius to attack. I appreciated the video you guys did. It helps.
“Ease: how easy is it to steal? Cost: how much does it cost?”
Thanks Jobe! Now I get it 😂
He said install lol
I had to rewind. Took me a few tries to figure out what they were implying.
I used to work for a Japanese car specialty shop. We were seeing sometimes a couple Prii a week with no cat. The shop was in a pretty affluent area that also had emissions testing, so if people didn’t get shamed into replacing it by their neighbors dirty looks, they’d have to replace it when their tags expired. It was such an issue that any direct fit Prius cats (OEM or otherwise) were basically on indefinite back order. We started having to buy universal fit cats and weld them in, but because PZEV vehicles (like the Prius) are so tight on emissions, even the universal cats that actually worked well enough to keep the CEL off were over $1000.
Mine was almost 1500 for accord smfh
The Cat Clamp would act like an arrestor cable trapping a fighter jet landing on the Nimitz.
then don't drive your low clearance sedan through the brush?
I love that Justin is so chill, I’m right there with ya man! Keep nodding along 🤙🏼
I wish you explored the DIY steel wire option, that can be a lot cheaper than 200$ and possibly even better.
Bolt cutters make easy work of almost any kind of steel wire or aircraft cable. The only real option for stopping thieves is to make the cat inaccessible.
@@xPRODIGYxGAMER well they would have bolt cutters because if this is what you do regularly you'd know about the common deterent methods like the cables. Just like how burglars tend to carry lockpicks or slim Jim's or prybars.
@@xPRODIGYxGAMER Why would you assume they wouldn't ? They are literally out there to steal whatever they can get their hands on, why would you think they wouldn't have one of the most critical tools needed for breaking into facilities ? lmao I said it because any thief who is out there stealing cats isn't typically out there with just 1 tool. They typically have a few tools with them, like a sawsall for cutting cats, bolt cutters for cutting locks and a screwdriver for jimmying doors/steering columns. The kind of people stealing cats aren't just walking around on their feet usually, they roll up in a car and have whatever tools they could possibly need to break into a place with them. If they see a car lot full of cars and it's only measure is a locked gate with a masterlock on it, they will use bolt cutters to snip through the lock in seconds. Every thief that's remotely good at their "job" has the minimal essential tools on them at any given time while they are working. A guy isn't just walking down the street with a sawsall and looking to steal 1 cat and go home. lol. They are out there to grab as many as they can as quickly as they can and as quietly as they can. That usually means they end up scouting out lots and places like that often have gates chained up with a masterlock or chainlink fence. Any decent thief will always have bolt cutters on them.
Man, you guys forgot the absolute BEST way to prevent your cat from being stolen. All you really have to do, is remove it before a thief gets to it and replace it with a test pipe. Then, you can sell it yourself and be all the better.
Good luck at the regular emission test then!
@@Morpheus-pt3wq I am actually not subject to those, idk about the rest of you guys. I live in Minnesota, and go to school in Mississippi. Car is registered in MN
@@EspressoToaster better for performance and milage too
@@Morpheus-pt3wq ya we dont live in communist states so we will do fine.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq Thank god we don’t need emissions tests in Ontario
A trick I seen online is to weld old drill bits along the exhaust. That idea is since the drill bits are hardened steel, the saw blades will get dull trying to cut through the drill bits on the exhaust.
it wont be hardened anymore if you weld it the head will soften the steel again
@@Videoswithsoarin I respectfully disagree with your comment
@@bradensmith888 i disrespectfully disagree with urs as well, maybe take a look into how hardening and softening of metals works before u disagree with people who are indeed right
@cheesygerit2299 Here is the research to back my claim: "High carbon steels contain 0.60-1.0% carbon and 0.30-0.90% manganese. They are extremely hard and strong, but also have poor weldability and are difficult to weld without cracking. Once heat treated, these are extremely hard and brittle."
Im super impressed with the quality of your content lately. This is excellent.
I installed a cat clamp for a customer's toyota highlander. Was pretty easy and straightforward. It was over a year ago and he still has his cat.
Mine got REAL close to being stolen about a year and a half ago. Saws all blade broke halfway thru the second cut. Immediately got it welded back together, self-installed a guard and been good since.
Where did u buy from?
The cheapest thing to do is just straight pipe it. Honestly, they should make you show ID and the title to the car the converter came from. Treat them like they are ALL stolen.
Also that cat strap wasn't duct tape. It's called tiger patch and it's a fiberglass product that melts to the exhaust. It's actually very durable.
Just before the 08 housing market crash as copper prices started to match gold prices, folks were ripping all of wire out of newly constructed houses and one even tried to get some from a close by power substation (didn't work well). In order to scrap Romex we had to show proof that we got it honestly like an electricians license and business license. There was never a great system, but it did calm the thefts down a lot
manufactures should just etch the vin on new cars and like you said , you have to show proof of ownership or lease/loan paperwork that proves it’s your cat. The problem is this is how junk yards make money, they recycle all those parts. But I agree with your first statement, the epa emissions stuff is bs , I’d rather just be catless
Well if you've ever been to a scrap yard you'd already know they require an ID unlike voting in a democratic state. As far as a title goes when's the last time you've given your title if you have one to a mechanic so they can copy it... I'm gonna guess never because every part of your car is recyclable not just the cat and somebody is making money off your old parts.
are you kidding you don`t have to show ID to vote it would be racists besides most junk yards are in on it
It is a thing in Poland, You need to show registration and ID to sell it.