I am about 98 percent confident that your case will be kicked out of court. You haven't spoken to an attorney have you?

You still have a valid if not "legal" complaint, because I think 80K is less than most people's perceived expectation of a mercedes. I think it is still worth your time to take the poll and express your opinion to the company.

Blue.

 

JFI.

The USA is different to many other countries and I have no experience of the legal system.

However is the felony "to tamper with the cat" or "to cause the vehicle not to meet the required emission standard".

Manufacturers have to make the system cover the worst case so the amount of "emissions equipment" is greater than may be required to ensure they meeti legal homologation standards when the vehicle is NEW.

System performance degrades over time and annual smog check requirement is less severe than when supplied "new".

So long as the vehicle meets the "in service" requirement which is checked via the annual? smog test (we have a similar check in UK/Europe) I would expect the vehicle to be "legal".

Now fitting a NON STANDARD after market catalyst is surely "tampering with the cat"?

Now I accept California is different since the requirement there is the most severe worldwide.
However quite often "low volume" specialist vehicles are fitted with worst case emission equipment so for instance my R170 320 SLK has California emission kit on it although the engine is fitted to RHD different spec vehicle. This is to reduce the number of engine variants etc in production.
This engine provides an emission level many times lower than the UK requirement (and I would also attest a California tuned engine will be likewise for the USA in general) and as such secondary air injection and centre cats maybe an "over the top" fitment.

Don't wish to get into a legal discussion but just sharing my thoughts.

Likewise what happens when an after market "sports" exhaust is fitted?

Stuart.

 

Hi Stuart,

Top observations. In the US, the cats certainly can be replaced with after-market cats, and according to my education, the law specifically addresses altering the "function" of the emmision system, such as I imagine removing the cats entirely, removing the brick, or replacing them with straight pipes is a felony, and teens are serving time in prison along-side killers and child-molestors for putting straight pipes on their hot rods. The cats are verified for function and placement during state emmision inspections, and without a passing report, you simply will not be allowed registration. Emmisions tampering in the US is a crime, punishable, and businesses assisting tampering can lose their license in addition to fines. Businesses here, in my experience will tell you immediately they will not custom re-engineer an exhaust system.

Blue

 

In my own personal experience, I used to own a mustang cobra that I had fitted with "mad max" side pipes, effectively four dragster style pipes out from each side. The car had the factory cats in place, but did not have the factory mufflers. Several times I was pulled over by cops, with guns drawn to inspect the vehicle. I will never buy another cobra; I don't need the hassle. Try it and see what happens!
Blue

 

why not just replace the thing? exhaust stuff is simple enough to diagnose....probably the easiest to replace as well...why screw around with it?

 

Mechanic confirmed it was the left cat brick rattling in the cat. Sucks. He said that if I didn't mind the rattle at idle, roll with it. It only becomes a problem when the cat brick lodges itself in the back of the box which can happen if it gets worn down a bit. $380 for the left cat (MD OEM) and $70 to put it in. He also said that it appears that some has replaced the cats in the past. Darn. I'm going to roll with it and see what happens. Still love my ride.

 

i have owned probably 15 cars with cats in the last 20 years...none new...ranging from 54K to 170K miles and have never had to touch a catalytic converter...all euro cars as well so I don't understand...however I have known cats that have owned camaros and such to drill their cats out when they clogged up to avoid replacement....a clogged catalytic is always a symptom of something else run such as running really rich....cliff

 

If you follow the 'tuners' and even cable shows where they explain how to stay legal....you can pretty much do anything you want with a 'cat-back' system In other words, a tuned exhaust downstream of the cat. However, too loud will of course attract the cops and local noise ordinances. As far as the cats go, keeping the oxygen sensor(s) and staying with a legitimate, listed cat, I don't see a problem, sans of course CA and their particular BS.

Mine has started rattling since the big trip...I'm looking for ideas and maybe something that sounds a little more exciting that *whoosh*, but WAY less than crappy, annoying rice tuners.

Kevin

 

@Cliff.

Unfortunately MB cats give a problem due to cold rattle.
This is not due to having run rich although such an occurrence could result in similar outcome.
As I stated previously this IMHO is due to inadequacies in the Design and Manufacturing process.
The brick intumescent packing material "blows" away.
MB are conversant with this issue but in Europe (high speeds) they only guarantee the catalyst for 1 year and with goodwill possible two/three years.
There argument is that they cannot control usage of the catalyst and events such as wading, engine serviceability (motorway cross splash) adversely impact rattle life.
8 years / 80k is a USA feature driven by the nature of the USA market.

MB UK have been extremely evasive on the subject and since the parts here are more like £1000 than 380 USD I resolved the matter by removing the brick on both my M112 engined cars.

The cars has subsequently been through about 10 annual smog tests and pass (hard copy reports) by a margin that makes the in service standard look stupid...and with no intermediate cat in place! (Can but no contents)

I have explained this previously and I appreciate the USA legislation maybe / is different to Europe.

The catalyst is a post combustion clean up procedure under certain specific conditions, which may or not be covered by the UK smog test.
In addition MB's tend to use multiple cats per bank. My engine continues to run efficiently and cleanly as originally designed and until such time that the engine is itself running badly due to some component failure (plugs etc) the difference in tailpipe emission is non existent. The manifold catalyst is the one that does most of the work.
The engine ECU with CLOSED loop feedback (i.e. O2 sensors) does the rest.

Stuart

 

quick update on this... I tried getting the OEM catco catalytic convertor from www.racepages.com and they don't fit my car inspite of specfically stating that they will work on 2001 E320 4Matic cars. I was left with either having an after market part welded or going with Mercedes original from the dealer. The Mercedes original is going to cost me $1534 for the left side and $1327 for the right side with around $400 labor and additional cost for the gaskets. That's what I'm going to do but this experience has left a really bad taste. I will be logging a complaint with Mercedes and will also present this thread as proof that people are experiencing this quite a bit...
Please continue posting your experiences with this...

I am going to speak with an attorney (a personal friend of mine) to see what my options are