[KeithO]

My wife's car (1995 BMW 525i) has been slowly losing power and having reduced fuel economy over the last 18 months. I rarely drive the car. 2 years ago, it got about 32mpg on highway trips. Yesterday, I drove it for about 150 miles and only got 25-26mph.

It is down on power and very occasionally smells like a morning-after Guiness-fart. I am 90% sure that the cat is shot. I priced OEM replacement cats and every source I checked was in the $485-$500 range (yikes!). There is also the obvious choice of getting a universal cat and making it fit...

How can I be absolutely sure that this cat is bad? I'd like to be completely sure before I commit the time and potential effort on this.

Thanks

[231go]

You can also do what we did w/ my friends T/A which is to disconnect it right after the converter and smash up the internals with a big honkin' screwdriver and then turn the car on and blow out all the guts. It takes some time and makes a big mess but gets the job done. Also, make sure and use a METAL catch can because those beads can get up to 1500degrees if I remember right. And then if you want a cat on the truck for emmisions reasons, then just add one on down the pipe somewhere and use the old as a y-pipe.