R2D2

Hi

This is my first post so bare with me as I find my feet.

I bought my 06 Impreza 2.0l r-sport estate last year.
It's had issues!!!
I ended up spending loads on diagnosics only find the hesitation with the ecceleration I was getting was fixed with an ecu download.

With a new lease of life I replaced the back box with a longlife box and it started to sound better at a pretty reasonable price but I decided to replace the whole centre section (up to and including the rear cat) with a straight through pipe (a friend chopped the old one out and welded a straight bit in - slightly smaller bore).
However I keep fgetting my engine warning light come on with error 'cat efficiency below threshold'. Main dealer says I need a new cat which is costly just for standard reeplacement.

I need some advice please folks.

As with everyone else at the moment money is tight at the moment but the car needs help.

Do I replace the cat on top of the other bits?
Do I replace everything Inc the cat all the to the back box with a proper set of tubes?
Do I source the standard exhaust system and put it back?

I don't care if it's second hand as long as it's not wasting my money.

Any sensible advice welcome.

Thanks

imprezajon

iTrader: (2)

if the car was running fine with just the backbox changed personally i would just leave it as a cat back system and replace everything else.
you should be able to pick up the replacement parts cheap and on a budget second hand.

R2D2

The first time the warning light came on was when I also had the hesitation problem and when they fixed that they turned the light off but the light came back on after I changed the back box and again since the center section was changed. I was kind of hoping that I didn't need to replace the cat as the car is only an 06 and it's not cheap especially if the light continues to come on.

Is it common for the cat to go after only 5 years?
The car drives well when the warning light is off.

imprezajon

iTrader: (2)

it all depends on what u are trying to achieve by removing the cats. unfortunatly u wont see much power gains on a non-turbo but it may sound louder. you may also have issues at mot time especially if the warning light is showing.
mine is an 06 the same as yours and have no issues with the cats, but i only have a cat back system. i only changed the exhaust for looks and sounds nothing else.

awdx4

It might be worth you finding out about the possibility of fitting a dummy load in place of the cat sensor, like is sometimes done to fool the ecu into thinking it's living a happy life, I believe H&S show such a thing on their website. I know I've seen them advertised if not there on another manufacturer's site.

That would leave you free to source exhaust parts based upon sound, appearance and price while leaving the existing cat in situ. I'm not familiar with the system on the non turbo but the box which is next in line to the back box is a resonator section and the first cat is in the section which comes after that.

Tim

R2D2

I only really started playing with the exhaust to get a better sound.
I started with the back box but was pretty disappointed as I really love the scooby burble. After that I had a friend take the next section out - quite a large flatish box - but with that we also took out a much smaller box (mainly because the pipe we had was straight and it made a better line for the next section) now I'm guessing the next section is the cat because it has a sensor in front of it, but if their are 2 cats where is the other one?
Have I already removed it or is it up in the engine bay somewhere?

Obviously I need to get the car through it's MOT and will quite happily replace the cat rather than remove it.