Catt repair long term update?
 

Hi all, hope everyone is well.

I've just been reading through this sticky

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12234

Does anyone have any further information on how this worked out long term.

Thanks Frank

Why not message him directly?

I was under the impression he had sold the car shortly after the installation. Was hoping the new owner or someone who knows the new owner might be able to help out.

Adrian's car is now in Scotland and the owner isn't on the forum. As far as I know he's not had any issues with cats recently.

I still visit here fairly frequently to check in :)

The person who bought ‘my’ S8 is a member here, but doesn’t post much. The last I heard (which I think was on Facebook) either he or his Mrs had clattered the cats on a speed bump, unfortunately. I believe was looking for replacements, but at that point I don’t know if he’d had a look to see if they could be repaired

The nice thing about the replacements was that they were metal rather than ceramic, so there was a chance they could be repaired

Given OEM replacements are NLA (they claimed to be when I looked into this) I’d defo go refurb route over anything aftermarket that’s not going to necessarily fit that well. The quality of aftermarket cats is generally dreadful in the uk (I used to work in vehicle emissions legislation, so speaking from experience!)

Thanks for that Adrian, much appreciated.

I've contacted the company in Germany and it looks like it's just one guy doing this on his own. Unfortunately he tells me that he hasn't been doing any for the last 12 months due to ill health. He didn't give any indication if he was planning to return to this or not. He did give me a link to a colleague though.

https://www.katalysator-matrix.de/kontakt

I took a quick look at the site and to me it just looks like a manufacturer of different sizes and types of catalytic converters rather than a refurb setup.

I really don't know enough about this subject to be able to say if that's any different from what we can get hold of here in the UK.

Unfortunately it does look like the rebuild option has now possibly gone unless we can find an alternative.

I'll keep looking

Cheers everyone.

I wonder if its worth getting in touch with an aftermarket manufacturer like B&M? They do replacements for A8s and the cats look the right size and shape and are Euro4, however their pipework is appalling. If we can get just the cats off them we could weld those in to the original downpipes.

I contacted B&M and asked them if they do a type approved cat for a 2002 Audi S8. It looks like not at the moment.

"Hi Frank,

Please accept my apologies but both the right side and left side cats are in development and we do not have a date of availability.

Thank you

Kindest Regards

Vicki



Vicki C Young

Sales Assistant

BM Catalysts Ltd

Tel: +44 (0)1623 663800

Fax: +44 (0)1623 663801

www.bmcatalysts.com"

Now, what I don't know is how big a deal is it to fit a none type approved unit. Do the mot guys check?

The main check is will it pass emissions - for anything else they ‘should’ check it’s worth downloading the MOT tester’s manual as it covers it in very plain language

Just FYI I wouldn’t spend money on UK supplied cats - they’re very cheap for the simple reason they don’t contain much in the way of precious metals required to work. They’ll get you through an MOT, and if you’re very lucky, 2 MOTs. Conveniently they’ll then be out of warranty. The market here isn’t pretty (and I was exposed to it in a professional capacity, hence why I went for the refurb route via Germany)

Maybe our German brethren can enlighten on how they deal over their MJ? I imagine they’re experiencing similar age related failures and will have info on alternative sources of decent grade cats

Will have to see if I’ve still got pics of mine from when they were done - was very neat