My 1984 1.9L Westy (Canadian model, = bought in Germany by a fly boy at the height of the clod war) also has an = empty cat. I had always assumed it had been tampered with, but = there is no sign of it. The way they are made would make that a simple job, = just remove and hammer away with a chisel or steel rod of sorts. I think that = the fact it is empty makes it noisier, it sort of rings. Bently shows the ceramic insert??? Was ist dass?

I suppose the question for the list = members would be: Does anyone have a cat with the insert intact? Any = difference between Canadian, American federal and California?

----- Original Message -----

From: Gary Stearns

Sent: Monday, September 25, = 2000 8:46 AM

Subject: Empty Cat. = Converter

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?