Does anyone know how much a new stock cat costs? Are used cats available? If so, where would I get one and for how much? My syster is thinking of buying an '02 X-Type. It has a couple of issues, the bigest of which is a partially blocked cat.

Mark

 

mjlaris, a new cat through the dealership is going to set you back quite a bit. Are you ready for this. The list price of a cat is $1480.00 (front or rear, both would be just shy of $3000). Oh, you want it installed. That would be an additional charge. Granted, the place I checked the price on (a dealership out of Cleveland OH) would sell it to you for $1154.40 plus S&H.

If you look on e-bay, there are universal ones that will run you about $300 delivered to your house. Then you would still need to get it installed. Please note that there are some universal ones that are selling for around $100, but these are the optional downstream cats and odds are, you are needing to replace the ones that hang right off of the engine. These are fairly unique to our Jags, so, they are going to have a matching price.

 

Thanks for the info Thermo. It is the rear cat and it is partially plugged. It manifests itself as codes as follows: Random Misfires, Random Misfire on Cylinder #1, #3 and #5. Under heavy load, the car hesitates due to it being partially clogged. Can a muffler shop install the universal cat that you mentioned? Also, is there a particular universal cat that you'd recommend? Thanks again.

Mark

 

mjlaris, a universal cat will not be able to be used if you are talking about the cat that hangs right on the side of the engine. You are talking 2 different monsters there. The cat on the car right now has an O2 sensor in the side of it and is essentially part of the exhaust manifold. The universal cats do not come anywhere close to providing those functions. So, really, you are looking at having to get either a factory cat or getting one of the $300 aftermarket cats that are specifically designed for the X-Type. The $100 cheapy cats that you see will not meet what you need. I do not mean to be the bearer of bad news, but I hate to see you spend money on something that you don't have to.

 

Qft! I just went through this with my 2002 3.0. I used Cataclean. It Worked for me! Its a mr.gasket product. i recommend it. I still have to replace the o2 sensors on both cats but that is something for later. Do not use a universal cat. they are not worth the trouble. Xtypeparts.com has cats if you really want to replace them. even with shipping from the uk its cheaper than dealer parts.

 

The universal cat I was looking at is $278 and states it is a replacement for Jaguar part number JAG1953F. I think this is the one with the O2 sensor but I'm not certain. Also, I found this Cat online: 2.1 / 2.5 / 3.0 Rear right bank cat catalytic converter - X-Type Parts

But I do not think this is the one I need. I have sent an email to the seller to confirm which cat needs to be replaced. His add states that it is the rear cat.

Thanks for the info unclefish and if this were for me, I'd go with the cat cleaner first to see if it worked but this is for my sister who is not very mechanically inclined. In fact, I have often told her that when bad cars die, they go to her! Therefore, I think the best route is to replace the cat but I don't want to spend $1500 for the dealer part unless there are no other options.

Mark

 

mjlaris, taking a look at the pic of the part you included the link to, that one looks like it should work. Granted, for that price, there are some new cats on e-bay for that same price. So, I would do some looking around and see what you can find. But then, you may also be able to simply get away with nothing more than pulling the cat off of the car, soaking it in some citric acid and then seeing what you have at that point. The citric acid will eat away the carbon and not really touch the metal of the cat. Most people just don't want to take the time to go through that much hassle and mess.

 

Cataclean is BY FAR the easiest route. its just a tank additive. it increases the exhaust temp and pouts a solvent in a gas form that pulls the blockages out of the cat. its like $30 a bottle. i would at least start there.

 

I haven't ruled out using the additive but I'm still researching the cat replacement. It there anything special about X-Type cats that necessitate they be replaced by the dealer or can a muffler shop do the work? Any info or experience would be appreciated. Thanks,

Mark

 

mjlaris, any muffler shop can replace the cat on your car. There is nothing really special about the cat other than how it is designed. The muffler shop may cuss a little bit because they are normally used to having the cats away from the engine unlike with our cars where they put them right on the block (this was done to help minimize pollution since the efficiency of a cat is related to the temp it runs at, hotter the better).

Plan on 3-4 hours of labor. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be moved to get the back cat out. You may find that some of the shops will toss a really high price tag at it just because they don't want to deal with the job. You don't want them anyways. Call around, see what the shops tell you.