Experiences of eBay downpipe/sports cat?

[Mitch H]

If your buying silencers or cats then yes you can see why people spend abit more. But when it's just a decat all it is, is some stainless pipe with some welds and if milltek welds crack then what's the point in the extra £££

[th3_f15t]

In defence for Milltek, they sell thousands and thousands of exhausts so the likely hood that failures happen and get publicised is much greater than brands who aren't as numerous.

Nigel at BCS explained this one, the cheaper sports catalytic converters don't use as good quality material inside them (mostly the rare earth materials) which mean they wear out after a few years whereas a catalytic converter with better materials will last much longer.

It comes to how long you plan to keep the car for, and also other supporting modifications should be taken into account. Running a lower engine mount upgrade (either insert or full replacement) will put less strain on the exhaust system and thus help preserve life.

[Vintyd]

Tempted to go for the Ebay downpipe/sports cat that looks to be the Direnza, so would fiiting the ECS Dogbone mount and the SP ALK help with it not breaking in a few years?

[th3_f15t]

Tempted to go for the Ebay downpipe/sports cat that looks to be the Direnza, so would fiiting the ECS Dogbone mount and the SP ALK help with it not breaking in a few years?

The short answer is yes, at least in terms of the flexi pipe.

[Vintyd]

Cheers, I'm guessing the sports cat will not be the best due to the price but what I was wondering is will the car fail on emissions if the cat was gutted whenever it does fail?  Would be nice if you could then gut the cat when it fails and visually for mot would pass as there is what looks like a cat still on the car if that makes sense 

[Deako]

I'm going for the BCS cat back and probably a cheap down pipe initially. Then upgrade at a later date.

[th3_f15t]

It depends how friendly you are with your MOT station. A cheaper cat will last a few years so if you're not planning on keeping the car forever or swapping the pipe for a better design at some point then it's a quick fix but I'd spend more initially on just a downpipe and sports cat leaving the stock cat back system as you'll see more gains with a downpipe than a cat back.

[Deako]

It depends how friendly you are with your MOT station. A cheaper cat will last a few years so if you're not planning on keeping the car forever or swapping the pipe for a better design at some point then it's a quick fix but I'd spend more initially on just a downpipe and sports cat leaving the stock cat back system as you'll see more gains with a downpipe than a cat back.

I want noise. 

[hlcst]

This is why you don't want to buy an eBay/Direnza sport cat



This is what happened to me this morning, it has only done about 1k miles! Luckily I bought @mvb12 decat last week so as soon as that arrives I will be straight into my mates workshop

[Mitch H]

This is why you don't want to buy an eBay/Direnza sport cat



This is what happened to me this morning, it has only done about 1k miles! Luckily I bought @mvb12 decat last week so as soon as that arrives I will be straight into my mates workshop

Just weld it back on?

[hlcst]

Not worth welding it back on mate the decat should be here soon. If you look at the image of the sport cat here http://www.direnza.co.uk/vw-golf-mk5-sports-cat-exhaust-downpipe.html you would expect that 1 prong falling off wouldn't be that bad but that image is a lie! There is no nice little bracket they have just directly (and poorly) welded the prongs directly to the pipe in 2 places, I will however get my mate to fix it when its off and make it look more like the image and sell it on

[gilesthedog]

Facing the same dilemna about the costs for a branded system I decided to wait and just fit a s/s downpipe with sports cat, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLKSWAGEN-GOLF-MK5-GTI-2-0-FSI-TURBO-200CPI-3-SPORTS-CAT-EXHAUST-PIPE-/230865921656?hash=item35c0ae6678

Within a few days the exhaust system warning light came on, even after reset it came back so waited for re-map before taking action. Even after the remap the second lambda was showing a problem with the gas level not being in the correct range so the mapper disabled that sensor and reset the light, it's never returned. 3 months later the MoT came around, no problem at all with emission levels and a straightforward pass. I get the quality/materials difference and would like to get a full pukka system at some point, just a case of having a grand to throw at it.

[Owencash]

I've had no issues with my cheap eBay sports cat, been on the car for 6000 miles,  I fitted mine in conjunction with a dog bone bush and the car is transformed ! Nice and quiet until you put your foot down and it sounds a lot better,

[MK1Campaign]

I've had no issues with my cheap eBay sports cat, been on the car for 6000 miles,  I fitted mine in conjunction with a dog bone bush and the car is transformed ! Nice and quiet until you put your foot down and it sounds a lot better,

Which one did you buy.

[Deako]

Well. My cheap eBay decat is now fitted and sounds great.