Inherited my father's 2005 Honda Accord LX 4dr 4 cyliner, 228K mileage after his passing. My Honda Service advisor friend confirmed the code was a bad CAT. Not wanting to pay Honda's price on their OEM CAT $$$$, I looked into OE replacement "Magna Flow brand"...found their CALIFORNIA OE replacement for $500 online. A day after purchase, they emailed back that year 2005 California OE replacement CA is discontinued and no more were in stock...out of luck.
What do you suggest I do to obtain a OE California replacement CAT on this 2005 Honda Accord. Other than the CAT going bad (engine light continues to randomly come on/off), vehicle is in decent shape given it's age and mileage. Still of sentimental value and worth more for me keeping it as a work commuter unless cost of replacement CAT becomes cost prohibitive.
Greatly value your knowledge and educated answers to all things AUTO. Please help me find an answer..
Andrew J. Galuppo/Skyebandit
FLY NAVY
Well I assume you live in California really have no choice you have to get a California cat to pass a missions so look around you never know and really you got junk yards there find California cars that were junk they'll have California cats on and buy used one realized all cars are driving with used one anyways soon as you buy the car it's used and so are all the parts
CA has some weird laws when it comes to cats. One of my friends took his car out of state to Nevada to get the cats changed.
Somehow he or the shop ordered a MagnaFlow cat, that would pass emissions. He was saying that MagnaFlow compatible one, but couldn’t mail it to CA due to legal restrictions. So he had it sent to Nevada. And got the shop to install it.
It was a direct fit. Technically it didn’t have the CARB stamp, but he got it to pass emissions.
While I don’t recommend breaking any laws and don’t quite understand what he did, I found his story interesting.
