Cat advice

[britishsligean]

I find myself in need of a new cat, I recently had an NCT the Irish version of the Mot, and my emissions failed on the CO level being nearly twice what is allowed, my lambda and hydro carbonswere fine. I have fixed the problem that has caused the cat to become poisoned which was a bad press cat lambda and a bad coil pack. My question is what engines can I pick from which will fit my 2002 1.2 azq, I know I can use another ibiza, a VW polo and skoda fabia, azq or bme which I believe was used from 2002-2005 but are there any newer engines that will fit? Ideally I would like something as new as possible, I can not afford a new oem one and my mechanic is advising against an aftermarket one as his experience with them has been them lasting about 2 years

 

[R3k1355]

To be honest just because they share the same engine is no guarantee the cats will be an exact match from other models.

Your best bet is to find one from an identical car with fewer miles on it, maybe a salvage agent would have one from an accident damaged car??

 

[britishsligean]

That's what I am trying to do is find one in the breakers yard

 

[RUM4MO]

The way I see it is, you are "between the devil and the deep blue sea" in as much as a used one from that age of car is probably amount to give in for similar reasons, an aftermarket one might not last very long. Though, I'd hope that there are decent aftermarket one available nowadays, it might just be picking the right one!
The pre cat Lambda sensor you fitted, was it the genuine VAG or equivalent NTK (same as VAG) that you fitted - if not then having that is same as fitting a crappy aftermarket cat I've heard. You should get some money back on the old manu-cat from a scrappy. I would have hopped that cat prices should have dropped back a bit now that they are not new technology - maybe not for VAG parts?

I have a feeling that cat failure was prevalent with that engine early on in its life, like back about 10 years ago - I've forgotten what the root cause was though.

 

[britishsligean]

The lambda I put on was a genuine vag from dave at sere motors, I have read the cats were prone to poisoning from failed coil packs, which I had and have replaced