Protect Cat on PH1 172

[WD40]

Hi,

Just about everyone I know with a car that's over 15 years old has had their Cat stolen. Has anyone got a suggestion for how to protect a PH1 172? Being a twin-cat, I'm guessing the guard will need to be unique.

Please note that my mechanic has said he won't give me an MOT if I de-cat it and I don't trust anyone else for an MOT, so that's not a goer.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Louis]

Hi,

Just about everyone I know with a car that's over 15 years old has had their Cat stolen. Has anyone got a suggestion for how to protect a PH1 172? Being a twin-cat, I'm guessing the guard will need to be unique.

Please note that my mechanic has said he won't give me an MOT if I de-cat it and I don't trust anyone else for an MOT, so that's not a goer.

Thanks in advance.

Remove it, sell it, fit sports cats, spend £300 profits

 

[G. Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

Get an exhaust place to fit v-bands to it so you can quickly pop it on for your MOT, and just have a decat for the other 364 days of the year

 

[hopgop1]

Get one of these made up:

Or these:

Seriously though, move somewhere where everyone's cats don't get nicked and park out of view.

 

[Pegasaurus Rex]

Get an exhaust place to fit v-bands to it so you can quickly pop it on for your MOT, and just have a decat for the other 364 days of the year

If you are worried. This is the answer!

Alternatively remove the OEM Cat, keep it in the garage and fit an eBay type approved CAT if you are worried about insurance being invalid etc. that way if the car fails with the cheap CAT you can whack you original CAT back on for the test.

 

[16v_paddy]

As mentioned above, fit an aftermarket cat, they're virtually worthless for scrap so no danger of it being nicked

 

[R3k1355]

The Ph.1 cats were worth stupid money weren't they?

 

[WD40]

Thanks.

The PH1 has a twin cat, and it's from an era where precious metals were used.

I think I'll go for a guard if I can figure out how to do it. My car is totally standard and I'd like to keep it that way. I don't drive it very often and it has low miles. If I want something faster I'll get a modern car, but I do less than 1K miles a year, so an M3 would be a massive waste of cash.

 

[WD40]

>and park out of view

If you park out of view then the thief has more cover when they're removing the cat... My mother's was stolen from a private estate in Kent. A neighbour videod the whole thing and the Police weren't interested. I know people from every part of the UK who've had them taken.

 

[G. Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

Thanks.

The PH1 has a twin cat, and it's from an era where precious metals were used.

I think I'll go for a guard if I can figure out how to do it. My car is totally standard and I'd like to keep it that way. I don't drive it very often and it has low miles. If I want something faster I'll get a modern car, but I do less than 1K miles a year, so an M3 would be a massive waste of cash.

If keeping the car standard is a priority then surely fitting an eBay cat and keeping your original one safe indoors would be better than fabricating some sort of anti theft device?

 

[Crayola]

decat

 

[Coops Mk1]

Decat or aftermarket all year then swap to original for MOT time

 

[R3k1355]

It only needs to be standard when you sell it, no-one gives a flying f**k if it's stock when you're driving it down the road.

 

[R3k1355]

Sorry, double post

 

[16v_paddy]

Thanks.

The PH1 has a twin cat, and it's from an era where precious metals were used.

I think I'll go for a guard if I can figure out how to do it. My car is totally standard and I'd like to keep it that way. I don't drive it very often and it has low miles. If I want something faster I'll get a modern car, but I do less than 1K miles a year, so an M3 would be a massive waste of cash.

It's the ph2 cats that are worth the silly money but are pretty safe from being nicked because of how difficult they are to get at to remove.
You'll be wasting time, money & effort doing that though, especially if the cat fails (which they eventually do with age) so you'll eventually end up fitting an aftermarket cat anyway

 

[WD40]

The PH2 cat is worth more? The PH1 has a twin barrel cat, whereas they went to a single on the PH2, which gave me the impression that the PH1 was more desirable. Either way, I get the impression that the ***** who steal cats go for just about any car made before 2007 and won't discriminate on the grounds that a PH2 has more precious metal.

The PH1 cat looks pretty easy to cut out to me...

When they took my mother's cat off her Honda, the insurance firm wanted to write it off. Like my car, it has a low mileage and she wouldn't have got anything vaguely near the quality of a 20-year old Honda for what the insurance (different kind of thieves IMO) would've given her. She ended up spending £650 to get a ceramic cat fitted, with the bonus of having her premium go up by £200 even though they hadn't paid her a penny.

 

[WD40]

NB - I had a flooring fitter over to the office this week. He told me that he saw his neighbour's cat being stolen on Monday night. He went out to confront them, only to see one of the gang holding a 3ft machete.

 

[16v_paddy]

The PH2 cat is worth more? The PH1 has a twin barrel cat, whereas they went to a single on the PH2, which gave me the impression that the PH1 was more desirable. Either way, I get the impression that the ***** who steal cats go for just about any car made before 2007 and won't discriminate on the grounds that a PH2 has more precious metal.

The PH1 cat looks pretty easy to cut out to me...

When they took my mother's cat off her Honda, the insurance firm wanted to write it off. Like my car, it has a low mileage and she wouldn't have got anything vaguely near the quality of a 20-year old Honda for what the insurance (different kind of thieves IMO) would've given her. She ended up spending £650 to get a ceramic cat fitted, with the bonus of having her premium go up by £200 even though they hadn't paid her a penny.

I'm a bit out of date with current scrap prices but when I got £500 for my ph2 cat last year the ph1's were going for about £150-250 as were the 182 cats.
I'd disagree somewhat with your point about them not discriminating because it's possible to check the scrap values of cats fitted to certain cars with an app that also shows a photo of what it looks like so it's more the valuable cats that are being targeted as it's already known to the thieves which ones are worth the effort or not

I'm not surprised about your mums Honda, some of those cats are £1,000 scrap value

 

[R3k1355]

Was all about the cats off certain Hybrids not long ago.

Does make you consider their green credentials when they need such a substantial catalyst to sort the exhaust emissions out.

 

[Kenich.]

I would be interested in buying your OEM CAT for mine, if you do remove for new / profit. I done this on my EP3, does make financial sense.

 

[Touring_Rob]

Has anyone actually had a cat stolen from a Clio?

My Lexus one was stolen but that was an obvious target because it was a hybrid with the big cat and high up so they didn't have to jack the vehicle. All of the other cars have been fine.

Was all about the cats off certain Hybrids not long ago.

Does make you consider their green credentials when they need such a substantial catalyst to sort the exhaust emissions out.

Its because they do lots and lots of cold starts, so the catalyst is very often not up to temperature.

 

[Pegasaurus Rex]

Has anyone actually had a cat stolen from a Clio?

My Lexus one was stolen but that was an obvious target because it was a hybrid with the big cat and high up so they didn't have to jack the vehicle. All of the other cars have been fine.


Its because they do lots and lots of cold starts, so the catalyst is very often not up to temperature.

There was a post on here a few months back where the chap had his pinched. I’ve seen a couple on FB over the years as well.

 

[Clio_fool]

NB - I had a flooring fitter over to the office this week. He told me that he saw his neighbour's cat being stolen on Monday night. He went out to confront them, only to see one of the gang holding a 3ft machete.

3ft machete? That's a f**king longsword! Maybe they want the precious metals to make some fancy armour? 😂

 

[Louis]

To be fair they wouldn't get a trolley jack under my car without going from the back

 

[hopgop1]

Has anyone actually had a cat stolen from a Clio?

My Lexus one was stolen but that was an obvious target because it was a hybrid with the big cat and high up so they didn't have to jack the vehicle. All of the other cars have been fine.


Its because they do lots and lots of cold starts, so the catalyst is very often not up to temperature.

Definitely has happened, good few posts on the Facebook groups about it. I don’t think a Clio sport is a plentiful enough target for cat thieves to properly target though, IMO they’ll only be the victim of opportunistic thefts. Plenty of Honda and Toyotas with valuable cats about to target instead.

Which is why I think the best defence is parking out of sight if you can.

or this

 

[JamesBryan]

Thieves know most Clios don't have cats in them 😂

 

[R3k1355]

Thieves know most Clios don't have cats in them 😂

Imagine jacking one up, only to find out the cat is long gone, then your jack disappears through the rotten floor landing a car on you.

 

[Touring_Rob]

Imagine jacking one up, only to find out the cat is long gone, then your jack disappears through the rotten floor landing a car on you.

I didn't replace the cat and instead welded in a straight pipe. A month after it was stolen the first time they were back and looking a bit miffed there wasn't a pay day for them - c***s.

Was going to lean out the window and tell them the cat had run away already but a few nights before they had hurled a load of gravel at my neighbors windows (who had gone to tackle cat thieves taking another persons cat) which ended in a broken house window and a load of stone chips up the side of their Merc. Utter scum.

I bet their game is to see if the car gets repaired then assume its had an OEM repair through insurance and go take the new one too.

 

[Chocice]

I have a very bright sensor led Light screwed to the wall over my car and a ring doorbell which triggers of an alarm on my phone if people get to close to it at certain times of the night, light is the enemy of the thief. Those cages look like they add weight and rattle about I wouldn`t want the faff personally.

 

[Touring_Rob]

I have a very bright sensor led Light screwed to the wall over my car and a ring doorbell which triggers of an alarm on my phone if people get to close to it at certain times of the night, light is the enemy of the thief. Those cages look like they add weight and rattle about I wouldn`t want the faff personally.

Mate if they want it the light will do nothing.

With a job saw they are SO fast. They had mine out and were gone within 5mins and at least 2mins of that was them threatening me with a big f**k off crow bar/machete thing.

What does apparently help is a German Shepard, or that dog from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Brilliant scene:

Spoiler: Albeit a bit non PG

 

[Chocice]

Omh

Mate if they want it the light will do nothing.

With a job saw they are SO fast. They had mine out and were gone within 5mins and at least 2mins of that was them threatening me with a big f**k off crow bar/machete thing.

What does apparently help is a German Shepard, or that dog from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Brilliant scene:

Spoiler: Albeit a bit non PG

Oh my god, sounds like you’re lucky you didn’t put a cage on your cat as they probably would have beat you up for inconveniencing them. Christ sake!! I’d need counciling after that.

 

[Touring_Rob]

Omh


Oh my god, sounds like you’re lucky you didn’t put a cage on your cat as they probably would have beat you up for inconveniencing them. Christ sake!! I’d need counciling after that.

Thats actually a really good point re-cage.

It wasn't that bad tbh, just felt like I had been violated and painful not having the car working for family trip the next day. I think my neighbour was more stressed about it that me.

 

[cupguy]

lower your car to an inch of its life and laugh at would-be thieves

 

[Brigsy]

Best way to protect it, is to take it off for a decat and safely store in the cupboard and refit for one special day a year.