Date:         Mon, 25 Sep 2000 07:46:23 -0400
Reply-To:     Gary Stearns <gstearns@SPRINTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gary Stearns <gstearns@SPRINTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Empty Cat. Converter
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

I noticed in a post today asking about Stebro exhausts a mention of a catalytic converter that came from the factory "empty".  I bought our '88 used in '93.  It too had an empty catalyst.  I remember thinking that this was strange as I bought the Vanagon from a VW dealer (they shouldn't let go of it with a tampered emissions system right?), but the converter showed no evidence of having been forcefully reamed out.  Since then I have seen several other posts referring to empty cat. cons.  Do Vanagons mysteriously tempt tampering or did VW actually sell them this way.  Why?  Was an empty converter just a place to hang an O2 sensor?  Was it empty because our Vanagons are seen by the feds as light trucks, not having to meet the same standards as passenger cars? 

Gary

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