They go straight to the scrap yard. Good news is California does make people take pictures with all non ferrous metals and have a valid ID. The bad news is the value of the theft isn't over a grand so its not a crime technically. However if you want a valid lead I highly suggest calling or going to CASS Recycling in Oakland. They are a large buyer of converters.

 

thanks . I don’t think I’ll ever find the culprits . I just hope karma gives them rectal and pancreatic cancer

 

California also bars the sale and installation of used cats. OP is in a real bind sorry to say.

 

Are you serious?!? that cat cost 4K from the dealer. My day keeps getting worse !

 

The idea was to try to stop or slow down cat thefts by eliminating the market for them. Nice idea, but the people who steal things for a living just turn them in for scrap.

If you can find one and have it installed, if you have a good job done and it's the proper OEM cat, no one will notice.

A friend ended up sellilng his Accord for next to nothing after a cat theft. It was a high mile car and not worth the retail cost of a new one and installation.

I have relatives in Oakland, but I don't want to add to your troubles.....

 

Take a look at universal fit high flow cats they should be a few hundred dollars and a few hundred to have a local exhaust shop install them.
it ducks to be out several hundred dollars due to a POS thief but, it is better than $4k for OEM.

 

Hello (from California),
Here if the cat part # is not correct, it will fail the bi-annual smog test! Don't just jamb one in there and be wrong about it!!!
Mike

 

I have an oem unit off a 99 7.3, should be the same part, 74k miles in very good condition, pm me if interested and we can go from there

 

Been down that road before. Dont take just any CAT. You have to go to the carb website and find the correct CAT for your engine code.
I ran into this issue. Because my chevy had a tow package, it had a different engine family code than the non tow package truck with the same motor.
pain in the butt.