I fail to see why a car must have a cat if it can pass an emissions test without it.

Ross

Because the Government says so?

Certain toxins are also converted (I don't know the exact physics)so are less harmful to the environment, hence the "converter" bit of the name.

if the car passes the emmissions test its fine, it would never be taken any further (imo, although academic as i am sure it wouldnt). If you was pulled by the police and they noticed, you can just say that it passed its mot though??? If that was the case they would probably ask you to take a retest possibly.

Most police are just normal blokes, and it depends if you draw attention to yourself, if you are sideways round a round about for driving like a tw@t then he will look for things like that, but if you drive like that possibly you should get done. but thats a different topic.

Ultimatly if the car had a cat from the factory then it needs it on now, if it doesnt, then you can be done. wether you would or wouldnt would be a different matter... i would say wouldnt, at worst be told it must be fitted, and 7days to do so!

My oppinion

But are you insured?

So that's it then.... a trip to Longlife to get my cat put back on.

Im insured and i know im covered as you can run an LPG converted car without one as even without a cat its still better for the enviroment than petrol

On the police thing, i got pulled over the other night for exuberant(spelling vickster!) driving and he thought
1, i was driving some kind of TVR(!!!), please i have airbags and ABS
2, the car next to me was a saxo(mk2 golf GTi)!

so i dont think the cat thing would be a worry unless they were traffic police clued up on cars well enough but id say the average exhaust note would give it away and also when the insurance assessor see it to value the write off potential of the car...

PS i passed my last MOT without a CAT using the bloke that iceberg has doing his MOT's

An MOT pass is not sufficient for a car to be road legal. A cat is required by law.

I think we're going round in circles on this thread, so can we bring it to a close, please?

The debate about cats and MOTs is largely irrelevant - typically insurance documents require that your car is road-worthy, which is not the same as MOT'd or road-legal.

It is not the job of insurance companies to enforce construction & use regs, so any modifications they accept are covered, even if they technically make your car illegal for road use. From a legal viewpoint your insurance company would find it impossible to back out of providing cover for an item that was declared to them and which they accepted as a material part of your contract.

If, of course, you don't declare a de-cat, or if your insurance company won't provide a quote with it as a modification the boot is on the other foot and you could well find yourself in trouble.

So, can we end it there?

I can't see how it makes much odd's while there may be a legal requirment for vehicles to be fitted with a cat the form size shape and airflow charteristics would be of no interest to an insurance company other than if by changing it, it affects the vehicles performance.

After all you could have a cat fitted which is pretty much non functional, either through wear or because the cells have broken up which *technically* makes the vehicle unroadworthy, however the driver and insurance is unlikely to be aware of this fact.

I think it would only come into play if it was deemed that the component was the cause or contributed to an accident, such as the coupling failed and the pipe came off causing an accident, or by increasing the performance to such an extent etc etc.

Otherwise from the conversation I had from my insurers it would seem that they would only replace the broken parts with OEM equipment, therefore if you smashed the car up, they would repair it to how the manufacturer had it thus you would loose any extra goodies (even if declared, unless you specifically insure the modified vehicle parts).

If you were to smash your car up to the point where the cat is damaged then in all likelyhood the cars going to be a total loss anyway. So the decat is neither here nor there.

If the accident was subject to a police investigation and it was found a car was heavily modified and that was a cause of the accident then it may be a different story. But you have more to be worried about with worn tyres or brakes.

As far as I'm aware anyway is the insurance assessor simply looks to agree the cost of repairs quoted by the repair shop to ensure they are not getting ripped off for unessary bits.

Just declare a 'non standard' exhaust. That way you are just been honest but vague.

Another option you have is to fit a high flow cat.

OK, we're going round the loop again, so this one is being forcibly closed.

Thank you to all who have participated.