Mistry

What are the legal implications on having a de-cat. i.e., you can tell your insurance company about the modification you have made but is the car still road legal?

Steve777

iTrader: (8)

Insurance company need notifying increase in power due to removing the restriction. On a full decat a remap is recommended

You may (and its a small may) get away with a road side check for emmissions if the engine is warm, you may fail as well. Full decat on the model is strictly speaking illegal if you fail the test. #

Having said that I've never seen a road side check, but there have been some. Your more likely to get pulled if your smoking from the exhaust.

You could go for Centre (cold start cat removal only which is OK) decat and then fit a high flow cat at the front.

Scoobydb

Any ideas on what increase in power you would expect from decat centre, Magnex back and dawes device fitted, maybe with a JR panel filter as well???

Andy McCord

Taken from H&S's site
Centre & Back gives approx + 18bhp
Centre & Back & Downpipe gives approx + 30bhp
as for road side emission tests you can legally ask for the test to be deferred for 7 days due to say your enging is running rough which will give you time to fit your cat back

greg.g

This is a bit of a grey area
If you have a full de-cat and someone drives into you and your car
is recovered after the accident,where do you stand?
Once your car is inspected for damage and they spot your de-cat,
could it give the third partys insurance a get out clause as they
would say your car wasnt road legal
At present i only have a replacment back-box and centre section
but i would like to know for future reference.

Greg

Scoobydb

greg.g,

has it made a noticable difference to your car having the centre and back box? Did you notice the power increase etc?

I am trying to evaluate whether or not to fo it. I already have a back box and I don't want to go for the downpipe at this stage so centre and back is about my lot.

Any info appreciated

Thanks

fdpxfunix

Scoobydb

I'm in the same boat as you. I've got a ProDrive back box at the moment on my MY99 wagon but I'm going to do the centre de-cat in the next month or so.

Not sure about the power increase, but people I've spoken to say it does make a difference.

It's a cheap mod, easy to do (or get a garage to do it for about a tenner) and will make the Scoob sound even better ... apparently

J.

Brun

I think technically speaking, you are not required by law to have a cat fitted, but by law you car needs to pass an emissions test. Cars are fitted with cats to enable them to meet the required emission level.
How you would stand after an accident, i don't know?

greg.g

Scoobydb
I only had my centre section fitted last week.
As already mentioned, the back box and centre give about an
extra 18bhp. It is very hard to say whether it has improved the
cars performance.It seems as though the turbo kicks in a little
quicker but that could be down to my imagination
One thing that definately isnt my imagination is the sound
You know when you fitted your back box how you noticed that
wonderful sound
Well with the centre section, its that much better
My scoobysport system isnt overpowering, its just a lovely
background gurgly roar
You just cant help but smile
Oh and by the way, i have an MY98 wagon and the sound is just
background at motorway speeds.
Greg
(still smiling)

midlife-crisis-scooby

Greg

I'm not a lawyer but AFAIK the situation is "Res Ipsa Loquitor" ie: the action speaks for it's self.

He damages your property (your goods and chattles) by driving into it and has to deal with the consequences.

Midlife..

Krud

Greg

Agree with you entirely - that is what I would have written (for your information, Jason). I have the TSL equivalent backbox and centre on my MY00 wagon. The extra noise on centrepipe and more immediate feel was well worth it. As for downpipe, legality issue worries me, especially as I drove past a roadside check the other day. Any body know what difference a cat-back downpipe would make?

Keith

Scoobydb

Thanks for that chaps.

Now the only issue I need to decide on is whether to get the resonated or non-resonated centre section.

Cheers and enjoy

greg.g

Thanks midlife and keith.

Scoobydb - go for the un-resonated.
You wont regret it

Now lets see
Do i need a new downpipe

Greg

Scoobydb

Don't start me thinking about downpipes! It's already nagging me. It's just the MOT issue that puts me off.

Thanks all

sparkster

Can i just say that having just had a down pipe fitted, i'm noticing hee haw difference. It sounds great but thats it. I think i need a rolling road test done as i cant feel much of a change

I dont know where all these gains are that people keep talking about.

Hel

on my old subaru (MY98) O had a full scoobysport exhaust (ie no cats)and one thing you definately notice is the sound. It is very loud . I repeat VERY loud. ie if you get pulled by the police you may(?) have noise emissions to wory about as well as the fumes emissions.

One thing I did notice is that with a full decat you could drive around at slightly lower revs eg go up a hill in 4th @35 whereas before I had to change down to 3rd gear etc.

But I did sound amazing - the car will be missed (the new owner made up his mind to buy it as soon as I turned the engine on and he heard the sound of it).

Just a small point - I thought that decats added a bit more power but they added lots more torque, so you need to listen carefully to what your ins co asks (eg how much more power does it add etc).

If your at all worried about emissions though then don't bother getting a decat downpipe. Theres no point being worried every time you go out in the car etc

full decat add lots of pops and bangs too (especially on car upto MY98) - you learn to drive slowly down hills using the gearing to hold the car back to induce pops etc

Paul G

hades

Get a downpipe with a sports cat if you're that worried. There are quite a few about now; I think scoobyworld now do them, Graham Goode, APS, MRT certainly do. Power Engineering also do a sports cat centre to go with a de-cat downpipe. Any of these should get you through an emissions check, and give you virtually as much power as a full decat (within 1 or 2 bhp). Only downside is that they tend to be more expensve than de-cats.

By putting a better downpipe on, the turbo will spin up much earlier - perhaps as much as 500rpm, so your power will come in sooner. It will also carry on to higher revs. Therefore the difference is much better than "just" an extra 10bhp - it's 10bhp with a wider power band and more torque. Do it!

I have the full APS system with sports cat (from JW racing), and haven't regretted it for a second. 284bhp and more torque at 2300rpm than a standard car has at peak, with a couple of other mods.

bandyandstrange

Hi people

reagarding full de cat if you have a japan import its worth looking at the log book my uk log book says the emmison levels allowed due to import mine was registered on 03/10/01 it says:

SVA certificate issued on 21/09/2001
Emission limit CO 3.5% Hc 0.12 which also means if you take the log book for an mot test they have to check the emmissions in a different way than a uk car :-)

so if you have a full decat you should be well inside the CO limit if car is well should be a max of 1% the one to watch is the HC next week i should have a full decat on my 95WRX i will put it on the gas analyser and report on my findings

Mark