My cat is pretty much rotten. My Question is: There is a 1/2" tube coming out of the side of the cat and running up in to the engine area. What is this tube, and what does it do?? If I ditch the cat and put a straight pipe on there, what do I do with this tube?? Will it f@@k up my sensors and give me a weird computer reading??

 

It's the A.I.R. tube, I can tell you that, someone else will have to tell you about the effects of its removal though.

 

It won't mess up any sensors, but it will reduce the effectiveness of the catalyst.

 

There's an output from the AIR system that's supposed to go to it; it's impossible to manufacture oxygen from nowhere, so in order to completely turn CO and HCss into CO2 and H2O, some extra oxygen has to be supplied to the catalyst. Without that connection your car may not pass emissions testing, depending on how strict they are and how they check.

 

I live in Alberta, and apparently its legal to remove the Cat. So, instead of replacing the shot one, Im going to replace it with a straight pipe.

As long as it does not effect anything.

 

I've had mine off for over a year now without problems. I just got a new cat w/o the pipe fitting (yes they make them) to be on the safe side. I can't say anything about wether or not I'm going to pass emmissions, but I think I will. I'm due June '03

 

Yeah, I've got a pipe through the center of mine so the Air pipe is pretty much useless and I've passed emissions every year so far.

 

hehe... ive got a muffler where my cat used to be