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Somebody stealing catalytic converters from vehicles in parking lots in South Boston, Columbia Point

Over the past few days, four catalytic converters have been detached from vehicles, according to Capt. John Greland at C-6:

On Tuesday, the owners of a 1998 Toyota and a 2000 Toyota discovered their cars parked at 2 Morrissey Blvd. were missing their converters.

Sometime between Tuesday and Thursday, a catalytic converter was sawed off the bottom of an Astrovan parked at 803 Summer St.

And sometime between 7 and 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday, the catalytic converterwas cut off a Toyota Sequoia parked at 647 Summer St.

Thieves can sell the devices to auto-repair shops - which then charge people who have had their catalytic converters stolen or damaged up to $1,000 to replace them.

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Comments

After turning 15, cars are not required to be tested or pass emissions in Mass. Catalytic converter "test pipes" are far cheaper.

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I mean it's not like you breathe what comes out of your exhaust pipe, right? It all just goes off to Magical Fairy Exhaust Land.

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I'm gonna guess that not everyone driving a vehicle from 1998 has $1000 laying around to replace a part that was removed with a saw at no fault of their own. Also, keep in mind that literally every internal combustion engine that isn't on a road does not have cats, including but not limited to, lawn mowers, jets (some of which burn tens of thousands of pounds of fuel per hour), some trains, etc. I'd cut the guy who drives the 1998 vehicle some slack if he can't afford to replace a $1k part that will probably just get sawed off again

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...that catalytic converters for a 12 year old vehicle are not $1000, that if you can't afford to keep a car on the road legally you can't afford a car (what's next? Can't afford brake work, oh well, just keep on driving?), and that just because some other source of pollution exists, you don't get a free pass on polluting yourself.

Next time you get pulled over for speeding, say "But officer, that other guy was speeding" and let me know how that works out for you.

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There's nothing illegal about it. No emissions testing. Not everyone can take the the T to work.

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Vehicles get up to 20% worse gas mileage due to catalytic converters. Its not just the added back pressure, its a much richer mixture to produce less NO (Nitrous Oxide) which cat converters don't clean, and more unburned fuel and CO (carbon monoxide) which can be cleaned by the cat. So, its not like removal of a cat is all bad, removing it can reduce CO2 greenhouse gas production. For least CO2 production, an inexpensive device to fool the car's computer with fake O2 sensor results is needed to make the car burn fuel at the optimal stochastic ratio.

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"Vehicles get up to 20% worse gas mileage due to catalytic converters. Its not just the added back pressure,"

No, actually. Modern catalytic converts do not add significant backpressure. The 10+ feet of pipe and two resonators add far more backpressure than the catalytic converter.

"Its not just the added back pressure, its a much richer mixture to produce less NO (Nitrous Oxide) which cat converters don't clean"

Google '3 way catalytic converter' and come back to this discussion when your knowledge of vehicle emissions systems isn't 40 years old.

"So, its not like removal of a cat is all bad, removing it can reduce CO2 greenhouse gas production."

The un-catalyzed gasses emitted from a vehicle that does not have a converter have a multiplier effect and cause environmental damage and impact human health - things such as smog and acid rain.

Thanks for playing. Now follow the law, stop being a selfish asshole, and put a catalytic converter on your car.

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As you might have noticed, Mark is stuck a couple decades behind the times.

What was true in 1976 or 1984 was not true in 1998. Current engines (like, post 1990) are designed and set up for the exhaust system components that are required by law, and removing those systems will not result in the sort of efficiency gains that the proponents of removing them claim. You may, in fact, ruin certain types of engine systems (think runaway diesel fail here) if you modify the exhaust systems in such a substantial way.

Not to mention that you will substantially increase the in-cabin exposures to pollutants when exhaust systems are modified or removed.

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Can you explain the large decrease in motorcycle power output ratings since about the model year 2005 for engines of the same displacement and fuel system (carb or fuel injection) and how racing kits that remove the cats and reprogram the fuel injection result in dramatic power/efficiency gains?

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Keep driving your Prius to your job at Novartis, maybe it will convince you that you are not a drain on the environment like every other human being is.

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Time to Eat the Dog by Robert and Brenda Vale is a book listing carbon footprints for things - dogs having 2x bigger ones than a SUV, children are far worse.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/pet-dogs-damaging-environment-suvs/stor...

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Doubt it.

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http://grist.org/article/dogs-vs-suvs/

In order for that book to be accurate, we would have to use a third of all of America's farmland for making dog food alone...among other nonsensical claims they make in order to arrive at their answers.

The book has been thoroughly debunked shortly after it was written.

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