Ok so here's my story.. but i'm going to make it shorter.

The car sat for over a year and a half.
A bunch of **** was replaced (radiator,wheel bearing,alternator, waterpump, some other crap)
I seafoamed the tank and crank - got FULL output of smoke out of the tailpipe.. save a very little bit from the leaks in front of the cats.

i brought the car to the audi dealer and they hooked their computer up to it and checked it out.. it gives them a throttle valve malfunction or something like that and it refuses to adapt... so i need a new throttle body.. ok.. wonderful.

there is still the leaks before the cats so i bring the car to a small garage in town to have the leaks sealed.. he puts in 2 new flex joints before each cat and then calls me and tells me he blew a gasket on the pipe that connects to the manifold because the cats are CLOGGED and his computer is giving him a shitton of codes.

I had the car at the audi dealer TWO days before i brought it to him and the only codes it gave the dealer were the throttle issue, O2 sensor and some other minor emissions code... all results of the throttle being bad.

I drove the car all of not even 200 miles since i seafoamed the system and had full flow from the tailpipe.


this ****** wants to charge me 250$ and i think HE made the car worse.. what do i say to the guy?

and on another note, if i must replace the cats.. does anyone know what.. if any... universal cats are good enough for the car and will pass emissions? i dont really want to shell out 300$ each if 70$ cats will work for awhile and still pass emissions.

 

1. Seafoam can destroy your cats. I'm sure some will argue, but all that carbon has to go somewhere. Use this product carefully and moderately.

2. Universal cats will work fine if you have them welded in. Where are you getting prices of $300 or less for V6 cats? Dealer price is almost $1000 each, aftermarket OE style or universal are usually about $300-400 each.

 

well i found this place

http://www.catalyticconverterwarehou...VERTER&mode=PA


and they are a smidge under 300 and appear to be 100% usable with the car as far as emissions and such go...

then theres any of the cheap universals you can get from places like autozone and such... like


http://www.autozone.com/autozone/cat...016&questions=[com.autozone.diy.valueobject.NavigationItem%40a914 73%2C+com.autozone.diy.valueobject.NavigationItem% 407da60e]


which really want to know if they are usuable to pass emissions. whether they last 150k miles or not is of no concern.. i just need the car on the road for awhile... without legal issues with a legit sticker

 

the reason to do a seafoam treatment with the car up to operating temp is so that the cats have a chance to burn off atleast some of the stuff that is going to be dumped on them when you put the seafoam in.

i find it hard to believe that the second mechanic blew a gasket because of the backpressure in the exhaust if you drove it around to a dealer and to a second mechanic (200 miles) since the time of the seafoam. if the cats were clogged that bad i would think you would have blown the gasket within 2 miles if ever.

if you need replacement cats check out labreemotorsports.com they seem to have some good prices and they have cheap high flow cats if you want some performance.