Cost to Replace Catalytic Converters (California)
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 40
Likes: 3
From: San Diego, California
1998 E320 Wagon 253K miles
Cost to Replace Catalytic Converters (California)
I've had my 1998 E320 wagon for a few months and it's been running fine, but would not pass smog, and I knew the issue was the catalytic converters.
I researched shops in my area of San Diego and found one in nearby Lemon Grove that had over a dozen five-star Yelp reviews.
Brought it there yesterday (the car had just hit 260K miles), just a 2-man shop, and the car was put on the lift. Mechanic knocked on the passenger side and could tell the primary cat needed replacing. He would have to cut to check the secondary cat.
Later on, he showed me both driver & passenger side cats he had taken off. The passenger side cat had no material at all, just an empty tube.
The driver side had some honeycomb material left but it was all clogged.
He told me they were the original cats, whoa!
They ordered Magnaflow primary/secondary cats for both sides (#444104, #441304) and the job was completed in 4 hours. Parts warrantied for 5 years/50K miles.
Here's the bill:
$700 Total parts including one flex pipe
$262 Labor
$ 56 Tax
$1,018 Total
I later checked prices online, and they were pretty spot-on, no parts inflation.
While in the shop, a customer phoned in with a 2003 Infiniti and the dealer wanted $1600 just for a primary cat!
I hope this helps anyone who needs info on cat replacement.
I researched shops in my area of San Diego and found one in nearby Lemon Grove that had over a dozen five-star Yelp reviews.
Brought it there yesterday (the car had just hit 260K miles), just a 2-man shop, and the car was put on the lift. Mechanic knocked on the passenger side and could tell the primary cat needed replacing. He would have to cut to check the secondary cat.
Later on, he showed me both driver & passenger side cats he had taken off. The passenger side cat had no material at all, just an empty tube.
The driver side had some honeycomb material left but it was all clogged.
He told me they were the original cats, whoa!
They ordered Magnaflow primary/secondary cats for both sides (#444104, #441304) and the job was completed in 4 hours. Parts warrantied for 5 years/50K miles.
Here's the bill:
$700 Total parts including one flex pipe
$262 Labor
$ 56 Tax
$1,018 Total
I later checked prices online, and they were pretty spot-on, no parts inflation.
While in the shop, a customer phoned in with a 2003 Infiniti and the dealer wanted $1600 just for a primary cat!
I hope this helps anyone who needs info on cat replacement.
