Is it necessary to cut out a catalytic converter on Polo sedan?

☝️ Removing the catalytic converter. one plus and one minus

A catalytic converter (popularly known as a catalyst) is an element of the vehicle exhaust system designed to reduce the toxicity of the products of combustion of the air-fuel mixture. It partially muffles the sound of the exhaust by taking away heat. It is controlled by one or two oxygen sensors (lambda probes), based on signals from which the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) adjusts the proportions of the air-fuel mixture. In general, does not affect anything other than trying to preserve the ecology on planet Earth.

Removal of the catalytic converter is an illegal intervention in the construction of the car’s exhaust system, which consists in cutting out the element completely, or knocking out its stuffing. This is done for several reasons, but the result is always the same. the car emits exhaust gases into the atmosphere without any reduction in toxicity. It is also believed that removing the catalytic converter reduces fuel and engine oil consumption, and also increases engine power.

The article is in such a way that the author on many points almost directly dissuades to remove the catalyst without installing a new one. The purpose of this material is not to change someone’s mind about something. The purpose of the article is to collect in one place as much unbiased and comprehensible information as possible, on the basis of which the reader could draw the most objective conclusions and broaden his or her horizons.

Why do they remove the catalytic converter?

There are several reasons to remove the catalytic converter,

and the main one among them is the high cost of replacement

When removing the catalytic converter, the goal is rarely to increase engine power or decrease fuel consumption. No one even thinks about this element of the exhaust system, as long as it is properly working. However, like any other car component, the catalytic converter is far from being eternal.

It works under extremely harsh conditions. Literally, on the cutting edge. Takes the exhaust directly from the exhaust manifold. Here they are hot, dense and moving fast. Accordingly, over time, the catalytic converter fails. it becomes clogged, melted or even crumbles. As a result, the exhaust system capacity decreases and the engine, as they say, chokes itself.

This is the most common reason for removing the catalytic converter. Approximately 25% of domestic motorists buy and install a new. The rest cut out the worn out one, and try to bypass the new problems that have arisen with different folk methods. But we’ll talk about them later.

So why can’t you just take the catalytic converter and replace it?? It’s simple. It’s not an inexpensive part. If you buy a new neutralizer in the original design, it can cost 10 to 30 thousand even for the simplest car. In this case, it is not reasonable to look for a second-hand catalytic converter. Exactly like buying a cheap imitation of the original.

It is clear that such expenses are not little, if not unaffordable for many local motorists. Especially when you consider that replacing a clogged catalytic converter will not bring any tangible benefits to the car owner personally. Speed, as they say, is not affected by this detail. Only on ecology.

It’s fair to say that this is not the only purpose of catalyst removal. There are cases when masters from service stations insist on it (not from dealerships, of course), promising significant increase of power, injectivity and, of course, reduction of fuel consumption by half or two times. There are some who after reading a couple of articles on the Internet have come to the hasty conclusion that the removal of the catalytic converter is a great and cheap type of tuning.

Anyway, more often the catalytic converter is removed without replacement for the same reason. the old one is clogged (crumbled and melted), and the new original costs at least as much as two or three full tanks of gasoline. So it turns out that 75% of cars with mileage of over a hundred thousand kilometers on domestic roads drive without catalytic converters.

What happens if you don’t change the catalytic converter?

If the catalytic converter is defective, the modern car will not start. So if you remove the filter, the sensors will fail. Therefore, it will be necessary to change the firmware. Car owners believe that it will be impossible to drive a car with a catalytic converter removed, because it will produce a lot of exhaust.

When is it necessary to remove the catalytic converter Polo Sedan

If the catalytic converter works intermittently, errors appear on the electronic display. This will cause a noticeable reduction in engine performance. The car frequently stalls. The catalytic converter can not only get clogged, but also fail due to mechanical damage.

How much does 1 catalytic converter weigh??

Their mass can be from 0.1 to 3 kilograms, but on average, if you take a ton of catalysts and divide them by a thousand pieces, then the mass of one catalyst is one kilogram. Same as metal catalysts they can be placed in series.

Current for catalysts as of today.

Catalytic converters from domestic cars /kg. Catalytic converters from foreign cars /kg. Catalytic converters metal (iron foil) / kg. Particulate filters up to 5500/kg.

How much 1 catalytic converter weighs?

Their mass can be from 0.1 to 3 kilograms, but on average, if you take a ton of catalysts and divide them by a thousand pieces, then the mass of one catalyst is one kilogram. Just like metal catalysts they can be placed in series.

Current for catalysts to date.

Catalytic converters from domestic cars /kg. Catalytic converters from foreign cars /kg. Metal catalysts (iron foil) /kg. Particulate filters up to 5500/kg.

How much costs removed catalyst?

Average. catalysts in foreign cars contain more precious metals and therefore their

Why they buy up car catalysts and what they don’t accept? The point is that the car catalyst or catalytic converter is designed to maximally clean exhaust gases from harmful products of combustion, converting carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water.

Manifold Removal Guide

In both cases, whether it’s a breakdown or a common clog, you need to remove the exhaust manifold. On sedan Polo for procedure you will need wrenches on “10”, “12”, “14” and “22”, the head Torx T14 and T30, pliers and about a pair of hours of free time.

Sequence of steps to remove the catalytic converter manifold:

• Removing the minus terminal from the battery.
• Getting down in the car and unscrewing the engine guard.
• Unscrewing the bolts of the lower part of the manifold.

If the exhaust manifold is damaged, it needs to be replaced. All gaskets are also recommended to be replaced with new ones each time the unit is disassembled, regardless of the degree of wear.

Despite the fact that the process of removing the manifold is quite a monotonous process, putting off the procedure for a long time is not worth. At least once every two years you should force yourself to check the device for defects. Otherwise one fine day the exhaust pipe of your wonderful Polika will turn into a real firecracker which explodes the air around with a deafening pop. Not at all New Year’s.

FURTHER READ: Changing the Fuel Filter of a Volkswagen Polo

What to do with a faulty catalytic converter

So, if the catalytic converter is clogged or its insides have crumbled and gone down the pipe, there are two ways for the driver to solve the problem:

• Replace with a new device. The original catalyst is expensive, because the internal structure itself contains impurities of expensive metals (platinum, palladium). In some models you can save money and buy a universal converter, but its lifetime is much shorter.
• Cut out and replace the catalytic converter with a flame arrestor. This method is chosen by most motorists. It is not perfect, it has its disadvantages, but it is much cheaper. There are also several options here: you can remove the catalytic converter and put a bump or disable it in the ECU firmware.

Installing the bumpers

The bumpers can be mechanical or electronic.

A mechanical bumper is essentially a mini-catalyst that is screwed in with the oxygen sensor. Easy to install, but unfortunately not suitable for all cars.

This lambda probe cheat also has its own service life. on average up to 20 thousand. km. mileage.

Electronic cheat. a full-fledged emulator of sensor signals with a microcontroller. It acts either to average readings of real “oxygen sensor”, or to synchronize readings with the first sensor.

The electronic “bump” is more universal in the sense that it can be produced for almost any auto model. The truth and it has more disadvantages: it does not receive all modes of the engine, so deviations in its work are inevitable. And as it is electronics, problems with the emulator are inevitable.

Read more about lambda probe cheat in our article.

Chip Tuning and Program Catalyst Deactivation

Chip tuning or ECU reprogramming. replacement of the factory control unit program with a modified version. In order to programmatically remove the catalyst, the factory firmware disables the device control on oxygen sensors, adjusts fuel maps and torque models. Euro-2 firmware disables the second oxygen sensor and allows you to cut the rear catalyst (bank 2), firmware under the Euro-0 disables the first lambda probe and allows you to remove the catalyst in the manifold (bank 1).

Disconnecting the catalyst in the ECU is a mandatory step when removing the device. This allows you to tune the engine to work properly and eliminate the appearance of errors forever. Instead of a catalytic converter, a flame arrestor or stinger is usually installed. You can further tune the exhaust system by putting in a spider.

Installed flame arrestor and new corrugator on Hyundai Tucson 2.7

Chip tuning will have the additional benefit of improving throttle response, power and torque. This way you will achieve several goals at once: save on replacement and significantly improve the dynamics of the car.

How to disconnect and remove the catalytic converter on the Kia Sorento 3.3:

How it fails

These are not all causes, but as I believe the main they are, can dramatically reduce the life of catalytic converters, and you will face the choice to either change it or knock it out.

Why knocking out is not the answer

About the removal of the catalyst, I have already written an article and made a video, look interesting. There I said that in principle you can do it and “flash” for EURO2 (remove the second lambda probe), install a flame arrestor and drive.

BUT YOU KNOW, the car turns out to be “toxic”. I’ll write my words from the upper paragraphs again: “Exhaust gases can get into the car, through the window, or be sucked in by the heater (air conditioner). In the city with traffic jams and weak flow, it is unpleasant to say the least, and if you are behind the wheel all day long, it also adversely affects your health. Dizziness and nausea are guaranteed

But what to do?? For example, some owners of Kia RIO or CEED write me, especially from 2012. 2014, when warranty on catalysts was absurdly small (about 1000 km) and it could fail and “carry” the engine as a whole. And if the warranty has expired and the “catalytic converter” also came to the end (and it could be on short runs). WHAT TO DO WHEN? Do not leave the engine to die?

The solution has been written to me by several of my readers. Install a universal catalyst in the “catcollator” or just weld it in front of the second “lambda-zone”.

And now there are universal types, on a metal base, that is much more reliable. And they do not cost that much (you can take almost the price of a flame arrestor, well a little more expensive). There are even options under EURO4, so that the second oxygen sensor, which goes after the catalyst, can show normal data (if not, you can bang a bump, not even the firmware).

By the way, someone even welded in neutralizers from the LADA Priora, and they worked fine.

The price tag I was voiced, from 3 to 8,000, plus the work of cooking 2.3000. As a result, for 5, maximum 11 000 you can get a normally working “catalytic converter”, and even on a metal basis.

As a result we get rid of the smell (no harmful gases), no pollution, and no ringing (hollow) sound. So there you go. And the old one, which has served its useful life, you can give it away, and even get a penny for it.

Here I finish, I think my article was useful for you. Sincerely yours Autoblogger

(80 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)

Discount up to 50%

Chip tuned my VW Polo today. First I will tell you about. What was “before” and then “after” the chip tuning. Before the trip to the Athletic Motors tech center, I treated the Polo as an ordinary means of transportation. the car just starts, drives. The car was sharp in first and second gear.when you press the pedal.

I decided to modify the emission system of my car Volkswagen Polo 110 hp.The car as a whole is not bad, especially after the noise insulation and installation of reinforced elements of the suspension, but the dynamics at low levels was not happy.Well, just a few hours ago did chip-tuning, so the first impressions: the first that.

Discount of up to 50%

The catalyst is in the exhaust system of the car. Thanks to its work, the amount of harmful substances in the exhaust gases is significantly reduced. The resource of the catalyst is on average from 100 to 200 thousand. km, depending on the model of the car and its operating conditions.

After 100 thousand. The catalytic converter begins to burn out and gradually begins to decay. With such a fault, fuel consumption increases, power decreases, and the life of the turbine and the engine decreases. In Kia-Hyundai models, degradation of the catalytic converter begins at minimum mileage (from 10,000 thou. km). This can cause fragments of the catalytic converter to enter the engine and lead to costly repairs.

Professional removal of the catalytic converter and its replacement with a flame arrestor improves engine performance. The exhaust is normalized and the gas back pressure which occurs when the catalytic converter crumbles and gradually collapses is reduced. In other words. It becomes easier for the engine to exhaust gases.

Chip tuning and mechanical removal of the catalytic converter is several times cheaper than replacing the catalytic converter (and its sensors) with a new one.

Knocked out catalytic converter, it is bad for the car?

As I wrote above it is just an environmental system, and if it is not there, then the car on the contrary will improve its performance (power, consumption). To put it simply. originally the engine does not care about the neutralizer, but it creates an obstacle in the muffler, which takes some of the energy of the engine to overcome (about this below).

But why in many cars if this unit is out of order (for example, melted, clogged or crumbled), CHECK ENGINE lights up and the car begins to behave not normally, traction is lost, sometimes it is a bit trojit, it may not start at all.

And that, my friends, is simple. If the catalytic converter is melted or clogged, the exhaust gases can’t pass through it normally, which means that some of it goes back into the combustion chamber and makes the newly arrived combustion mixture less efficient. The engine suffocates itself.

If there is no melting, but the “Check” light came on, it is possible that from the high mileage it simply wore out. In modern cars there are so-called oxygen sensors (lambda probes), one stands before the catalyst, the other after it and detects presence of harmful compounds, if their percentage increases. the second (or also called lower “lambda”) signals that the neutralizer does not work (or does not work as needed) and HAS TO BE REPLACED. By the way, some cars can not even run (tribute to ecology).

Thus, knocking out or removing it, you simply free the exhaust tract of the car from the obstacle in the form of a filter and lowering its ecological standard. BUT ONCE AGAIN. IT DOES NOT AFFECT THE SERVICE LIFE OF THE POWER UNIT IN ANY WAY!

BUT to make your car normally drove you need to “firmware” lowered environmental class (usually it is EURO2) or put a cheat. Otherwise the program in the ECU will not let you normally drive.

Flashing for EURO2 and a cheat sheet. what does it mean??

As I wrote above. the second oxygen sensor (lower lambda) controls harmful emissions. Their number is now strictly regulated by European standards, which are called “EURO”, now I will not talk about EURO “0-1” we are interested in the second generation.

So, what is the EURO2. They introduced it long ago, namely in 1996. At that time, the cars have received an innovative system, namely the catalytic converter. As we all know, over time it can get clogged, and the fuel was not like now, it had a lot of sulfur, which contributed to clogging honeycomb much faster, and as we know, the car began to choke on itself. Then engineers have installed an oxygen sensor, it was only one, and was needed for capturing CO2 in the chamber before the catalytic converter.

If the level of CO2 went up, it indirectly said that the catalyst was clogged (i.e. there was a back-pressure effect), the sensor sent this information to the ECU and the ignition was corrected, namely the fuel mixture was reduced. Thus, the power dropped much, the car did not drive and the owner “willy-nilly” had to go to the service station and change this part.

But as you and I know the price tag is HIGH to say the least, so many owners simply removed the honeycomb and the POWER RESTORED!

BUT how? Yes, it’s simple, the CO2 level in the chamber in front of the catalyst was dropping significantly, the oxygen sensor recorded it (that everything is fine) and the car ride was brisk and easy. It suited everyone, but ONLY NOT the environmentalists! That is why they introduced the EURO3 standard (now there is already a EURO5 standard). What has changed, yes, there is simply a second oxygen sensor (lower lambda) behind the catalyst. The principle of work here is the following. the first lambda (before the filter) fixes the level of harmful substances, the second (after it) should fix the level much less, because the harmful substances have decomposed.

If you remove the catalytic cone, both sensors will register the same value (“second” sends information to the ECU), so. will burn CHECK ENGINE, power will drop, the car does not go. Now it does not solve the problem.

What is done with the firmware for EURO2? They change the firmware in the ECU, instead of EURO3,4 they put EURO2. The essence of all these actions is trivial. simply disconnect the second lower lambda (there is only one upper), the car begins to drive as it should, without undercutting power.

But such interventions in the firmware is not really good. The whole thing is that they produce them not the manufacturers themselves, but “folk craftsmen”, okay that just disables the second “lambda”, that is just adjusting the readings. May be this programmer wants to put some strange algorithms in ECU, the engine will not benefit from this. You have to be very careful here.

So we found the second way out and I think it’s more correct. installing the cheat. What is the cheat. it is essentially a “spacer” in front of the second oxygen sensor, it sort of moves it at a greater distance from the exhaust gases, it captures more oxygen and starts to work fine.

Now there are a few variants of these cheats:

• Empty. It’s just a tube with a very small hole on the end (the part that screws into the muffler) with another side screwed oxygen sensor. Only a limited amount of harmful substances is in the exhaust, no excess emissions and therefore no CHECK light.
• With mini catalytic converter inside. That is right in the “spacer” there is like a mini honeycomb, which also cleans the exhaust precisely to fix the normal values.
• Angled. These are both types described above, only they are done at a 90 degree angle, needed for difficult places.

The pluses of the cheat, is that there is no need to get into the ECU and change the standard firmware, as well as ).

Reviews of Volkswagen Polo owners after chip tuning

” The dynamics increased, it starts pulling much better from downward, 3 speeds there was a sag during acceleration, now the consumption with a relaxed driving style is almost 1 liter. “- feedback from one of the owners of VW Polo after the chip tuning at our tech center.

Benefits of Athletic Motors

• careful attitude to the car (we use protective capes against dirt and scratches)
• We use the most modern and reliable equipment which is 100% safe for the car electronics
• We are official representatives of the leading calibration companies that tune VW engines
• Lifetime Warranty on all our work
• convenient customer area
• free round-trip cab service in the city

We do not encourage you to thoughtlessly remove catalysts in a row on all makes of cars. However, the mileage of this Volkswagen Polo 1.6. 230k. km., and it starts to fall apart.

Catalyst removal and flame arrestor installation for Volkswagen Polo 1.6 (110 л.с.)

Inspect catalytic converter with endoscope during vehicle diagnostics.

Catalytic converter resource for VW Polo cars is 80-100 thousand.km. After that, it will start to degrade. Many factors affect the condition of the catalytic converter. Bad fuel, short city trips accelerate this process.

Catalyst chips can enter the engine and cause scoring on the cylinder walls.

Many service technicians do not properly weld. In order to remove the entire catalytic converter, they make several cuts on the exhaust manifold body and then weld it. which is completely wrong. The metal on the body of the exhaust manifold is very thin and over time, these seams break and crack.

We cut the housing along the factory seams and carefully remove the catalytic converter. Then we weld a flame arrester to the body of the OEM manifold with TIG welding. Before that we carefully treat parts with degreaser and grinder to avoid dirt and pore formation.

The metal at the future seams is thoroughly cleaned before welding.

Then we weld a flame arrester to the body of the OEM manifold.

We weld the body with argon-arc welding.

Look at the quality of the welds. Seams are obtained strong, resistant to corrosion. We guarantee that welds won’t crack, burst and exhaust gases won’t get into the cabin.

We use only high quality materials in our work. Blow torch argon welding. When welding, we feed argon into the inside of the pipe as well, so that the welds are not only of high quality on the outside, but also on the inside.

A flame arrestor lowers the temperature of the exhaust gas, which increases the life of the exhaust system. Thanks to it, the sound of the exhaust system does not change.

The result of catalytic converter removal

• Eliminates forever the risk of an engine failure caused by fragments of the catalytic converter
• the sound of the exhaust system is the same as before
• A flame arrestor keeps exhaust temperatures normal and preserves the life of the exhaust system

Come to Athletic Motors

Give yourself more enjoyment both in the city and on long road trips. come to Athletic Motors for a chip tuning. Leave your request online or give us a call. We will be happy to advise you and answer your questions.