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> The amount of precious metals in a catalytic converter varies widely, but a standard part might contain: At current market value, that’s an average of $595 to

> The amount of precious metals in a catalytic converter varies widely, but a standard part might contain: At current market value, that’s an average of $595 to $1,420 worth of precious metals. > Victims often have to shell out $500 to $3k+ to fix the damage. Their estimates for the value of the precious metals seems high. It also doesn’t make sense that their floor for the value of the precious metals is $595 but the floor for the replacement cost of an entire catalytic converter is $500.

14 5y ago
It would only be $500 dollars to replace if you could find a used one from say a salvage yard if you have to go brand new then it is expensive. Source I am a backyard mechanic and that is how things are done. Poor means you do the job yourself and salvage while soccer mom means you pay a premium for a new part and pay someone to install it.
- rfrey 5y ago
  If catalytic converters have enough value for people to steal them at night, and have >500 bucks of raw material in them, there are none at the wreckers. When steel went through the roof in price I couldn't get leaf springs anymore because the wreckers knew they could sell them for scrap more profitably - yards are a low margin business and they know how to maximize revenue. Source I am a backyard mechanic who doesn't feel the need to be condescending to those who aren't.
  - 14 5y ago
    Well I said salvage yard but in reality it could be buy it used from someone who crashed their car. Even my local salvage yard has some they will sell for cheap because they haven’t had the time to go under and remove it. The point is in some cases you can get the parts for scrap prices. Around here the most scrap cars go for is about $300. Lots of people have a yard with 2-3 dead cars. I have 3 currently. Yes if I take every part off and sell individually I can make more money but for just as is $300. The other means of fixing this issue is just not add a catalytic converter but then you need to install a cat delete device so you don’t get a CEL and fail emissions testing. That too would cost several hundred dollars. Wasn’t trying to be condescending perhaps you woke up wrong side of the bed. Good day.
    - sagarm 5y ago
      This was the part that came off as condescending to me: > while soccer mom means you pay a premium for a new part and pay someone to install it. "soccer mom" is generally not a compliment.
      - 14 5y ago
        Perhaps it was me who woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I’m going through some heavy health stuff right now and don’t feel great. I guess I meant by soccer mom someone in a better position financially who would’ve paid someone to do the job thus costing them more. I hope all is well in your life, cheers.
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    At least in Berkeley where this kind of theft is common the parts aren't going to scrap dealers, they sell the whole thing to small repair garages. It's basically an evil cycle where the repair garage charges you $5000 or whatever to replace your stolen converter with another stolen converter and the thieves are getting their share.
    - MertsA 5y ago
      If they're selling them to a shady repair shop it's not to use on another vehicle it's to launder the stolen catalyst so it's coming from a "legitimate" source. Thieves don't carefully unbolt anything, they dive under a car with a sawzall and a metal cutting blade or an angle grinder, rip it out, and take off. A garage would need to cut and prep the stolen catalytic converter, cut the flanges off of the old one, weld it to the stolen one, and spend every night praying that none of their customers ever looked below their cars again because a used frankenstein catalytic converter will stand out and it's illegal to slap a used catalytic converter on without it being tested and labeled as such. Why would they go out of their way to commit a felony that's much more likely to get caught than just buying the catalyst at half price to drop off at the scrap yard later? Also there's tons of vehicles that have been driven on a misfire for too long, improper mixture, coolant contamination, etc that can reduce the efficiency of a catalytic converter but not be immediately obvious. If a garage is doing this dozens of times there's going to be a bad catalytic converter that trips a P0420 300 miles down the road and any mechanic looking at it is going to know what happened after a quick chat with the owner. There's no way they'd get away with it long term, people are already distrustful of mechanics so being charged for a new cat and getting franken cat bolted on is going to get the cops involved sooner or later.
bagacrap 5y ago
unless the cost to extract the metals from a catalytic converter is > $95, and the replacement is a spare catalytic converter (from a junkyard say)
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Used converters are not legal for sale for installation unless they’ve been individually tested for function. There are numerous catalytic converters for sale on Amazon around the $100 price point. If there’s $500 of rare metals inside, I think I’ll supplement my tech job and do a bunch of drop shipping from Amazon to a scrap metal place someplace.
  - mindslight 5y ago
    I've heard from a mechanic that the aftermarket cats don't work particularly well, and they're basically just for fulfilling the legal requirement to repair an emissions system as designed. Presumably they skimp on the expensive catalyst. Does the CA smog test for newer cars still include an actual sensor stuck into your tailpipe, or is it all ODB2? And does the typical emissions system have any sensors past the catalytic converter?
    - brianwawok 5y ago
      Many (most) states never actually hook cars up to sensors. So for most of the country, a half working converter looks right, at the cost of our air quality….
      - oasisbob 5y ago
        And, some states which used to have emission tests like Washington have discontinued them entirely, via OBD or sniffing. Justification was diminishing returns as the distribution of cars on the road has naturally changed and eliminated many problems.
        lotsofpulp 5y ago
ashalhashim 5y ago
The price of a catalytic converter is much higher. My friend’s catalytic converter was stolen from her late 2000s Accord, and her car was totaled as a result.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jcampbell1 5y ago
Catalytic converters can use many combinations of platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Many older cats have right much rhodium which used to be less than $1000 an oz, but now is closer to $10,000/oz. If someone steals your high rhodium cat, and you replace it with a rhodium free cat, it can be the case that the scrapped cat is worth more than the replacement.
gnopgnip 5y ago
3 years ago rhodium prices were about $3k an ounce. In April it was $27k an ounce, and has since dropped to ~$16k

14 5y ago

It would only be $500 dollars to replace if you could find a used one from say a salvage yard if you have to go brand new then it is expensive. Source I am a backyard mechanic and that is how things are done. Poor means you do the job yourself and salvage while soccer mom means you pay a premium for a new part and pay someone to install it.

rfrey 5y ago
If catalytic converters have enough value for people to steal them at night, and have >500 bucks of raw material in them, there are none at the wreckers. When steel went through the roof in price I couldn't get leaf springs anymore because the wreckers knew they could sell them for scrap more profitably - yards are a low margin business and they know how to maximize revenue. Source I am a backyard mechanic who doesn't feel the need to be condescending to those who aren't.
- 14 5y ago
  Well I said salvage yard but in reality it could be buy it used from someone who crashed their car. Even my local salvage yard has some they will sell for cheap because they haven’t had the time to go under and remove it. The point is in some cases you can get the parts for scrap prices. Around here the most scrap cars go for is about $300. Lots of people have a yard with 2-3 dead cars. I have 3 currently. Yes if I take every part off and sell individually I can make more money but for just as is $300. The other means of fixing this issue is just not add a catalytic converter but then you need to install a cat delete device so you don’t get a CEL and fail emissions testing. That too would cost several hundred dollars. Wasn’t trying to be condescending perhaps you woke up wrong side of the bed. Good day.
  - sagarm 5y ago
    This was the part that came off as condescending to me: > while soccer mom means you pay a premium for a new part and pay someone to install it. "soccer mom" is generally not a compliment.
    - 14 5y ago
      Perhaps it was me who woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I’m going through some heavy health stuff right now and don’t feel great. I guess I meant by soccer mom someone in a better position financially who would’ve paid someone to do the job thus costing them more. I hope all is well in your life, cheers.
- jeffbee 5y ago
  At least in Berkeley where this kind of theft is common the parts aren't going to scrap dealers, they sell the whole thing to small repair garages. It's basically an evil cycle where the repair garage charges you $5000 or whatever to replace your stolen converter with another stolen converter and the thieves are getting their share.
  - MertsA 5y ago
    If they're selling them to a shady repair shop it's not to use on another vehicle it's to launder the stolen catalyst so it's coming from a "legitimate" source. Thieves don't carefully unbolt anything, they dive under a car with a sawzall and a metal cutting blade or an angle grinder, rip it out, and take off. A garage would need to cut and prep the stolen catalytic converter, cut the flanges off of the old one, weld it to the stolen one, and spend every night praying that none of their customers ever looked below their cars again because a used frankenstein catalytic converter will stand out and it's illegal to slap a used catalytic converter on without it being tested and labeled as such. Why would they go out of their way to commit a felony that's much more likely to get caught than just buying the catalyst at half price to drop off at the scrap yard later? Also there's tons of vehicles that have been driven on a misfire for too long, improper mixture, coolant contamination, etc that can reduce the efficiency of a catalytic converter but not be immediately obvious. If a garage is doing this dozens of times there's going to be a bad catalytic converter that trips a P0420 300 miles down the road and any mechanic looking at it is going to know what happened after a quick chat with the owner. There's no way they'd get away with it long term, people are already distrustful of mechanics so being charged for a new cat and getting franken cat bolted on is going to get the cops involved sooner or later.

bagacrap 5y ago

unless the cost to extract the metals from a catalytic converter is > $95, and the replacement is a spare catalytic converter (from a junkyard say)

sokoloff 5y ago
Used converters are not legal for sale for installation unless they’ve been individually tested for function. There are numerous catalytic converters for sale on Amazon around the $100 price point. If there’s $500 of rare metals inside, I think I’ll supplement my tech job and do a bunch of drop shipping from Amazon to a scrap metal place someplace.
- mindslight 5y ago
  I've heard from a mechanic that the aftermarket cats don't work particularly well, and they're basically just for fulfilling the legal requirement to repair an emissions system as designed. Presumably they skimp on the expensive catalyst. Does the CA smog test for newer cars still include an actual sensor stuck into your tailpipe, or is it all ODB2? And does the typical emissions system have any sensors past the catalytic converter?
  - brianwawok 5y ago
    Many (most) states never actually hook cars up to sensors. So for most of the country, a half working converter looks right, at the cost of our air quality….
    - oasisbob 5y ago
      And, some states which used to have emission tests like Washington have discontinued them entirely, via OBD or sniffing. Justification was diminishing returns as the distribution of cars on the road has naturally changed and eliminated many problems.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago

ashalhashim 5y ago

The price of a catalytic converter is much higher. My friend’s catalytic converter was stolen from her late 2000s Accord, and her car was totaled as a result.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jcampbell1 5y ago

Catalytic converters can use many combinations of platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Many older cats have right much rhodium which used to be less than $1000 an oz, but now is closer to $10,000/oz. If someone steals your high rhodium cat, and you replace it with a rhodium free cat, it can be the case that the scrapped cat is worth more than the replacement.

gnopgnip 5y ago

3 years ago rhodium prices were about $3k an ounce. In April it was $27k an ounce, and has since dropped to ~$16k