Hi Folks,
I've got a 2013 Honda Fit coming up on 9 years old (~112K miles in Boston winters) with louder and louder noise that I naively thought signaled needing a new muffler. My nephew and a mechanic independently found that the noise is coming from midway under the car, not at the muffler end. The mechanic looked under the car after jacking it up and said that the bolts in the catalytic converter have rusted and need replaced. He also said the (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the pipe coming before the catalytic converter is also rusting. (Forgive my ignorance, but is that the exhaust manifold?)
As a first attempt to fix, he's going try to replace the bolts (he says that can be tricky and there's a risk of cracking the catalytic converter) and replace a gasket, and I guess somehow address the rusty pipe (or exhaust manifold) on this Friday morning. He thinks he can fix all this so I avoid having me get an OEM catalytic converter assembly. I think the mechanic is trying to do right by me, but I would appreciate any feedback on this approach. I've always found that OEM works best with mufflers at least, but if we can't find OEM parts, do you folks recommend a particular aftermarket brand of exhaust system parts if I need to get the pipe or exhaust manifold that attaches to the catalytic converter (not at the muffler end).
Thanks for any suggestions, insights, and feedback!
Kind regards,
Tessie

 

First and foremost, best of luck with breaking those bolts loose without having to cut them off the cats. I'd highly encourage a mix of using PB blaster and heat/fire to break those bolts loose. The last time I checked... OEM primary cats are easily near the 800 to 900 USD buck mark for second gen Fits (not sure about parts availability as it was 3 or 4 years ago). Aftermarket seems to be floating around the low 400 USD mark with shipping it seems using Rock Auto as a source but that's still fairly steep in my book.

On your generation Fit (GE8 chassis code to help with further searches), there are two catalytic converters. The primary one that mounts to the cylinder head (since the actual exhaust manifold is integrated with the cylinder head) along with has a oxygen sensor before & after it along with a secondary cat then of course the aforementioned secondary cat that is between the m primary cat and B-pipe/Mid-pipe. You MIGHT be able to acquire a new aftermarket primary cat from Rock Auto Parts from manufactures like Walker or AP but I cannot say anything about their part quality or longevity.

You may also luck out and find decent used OE cats from the used market place here, on Facebook, or maybe even local road courses that have folks running Formula F since they use the L15A7 out of the second gen Fit and HPD goods replace all the emissions equipment. These bits are generally worthless to Formula F folk but absolute gold to us just for the record.

 

Awesome info above.

To add just a little.. Walker is a good aftermarket exhaust company. That is to say, their parts at least fit together and are welded properly based on reviews and my limited experience using them. The same can't be said for my experience with Bosal.. which is funny, because I read that they make TRD exhaust components for Toyota. I guess there are quality tiers which aren't advertised.

I'd recommend OEM over walker, but you don't want to wind up with a burnt used one. A destroyed high-end thing is definitely less useful than a cheap working thing..

Here's hoping that the pipes are salvageable and your mechanic can remove, cut off, drill out the necessary hardware without issue!

I'm just finishing up a job that involved replacing snapped exhaust studs on a mazda. They were recessed in the cylinder head!

 

Thanks for the helpful reply and tutorial, Hootie. Always great to learn new things! I did see some folks looking for OE cats on this forum and posted pictures of rusted cats and exhausted systems. I do think I could have done a better job of washing the Fit's undercarriage after major snowstorm and heavy ice applications.

 

Thanks Pyts for the best wishes and sharing your preference for the Walker aftermarket parts. And kudos on your automotive repair skills! I should ask the mechanic to take a few photos of the rust damage for my own, uh, edification.

 

Thanks Hootie! I replied once before using a different button and didn't discover the "Quick Reply" button until responding to Pyts's reply, so a more detailed reply should post soon. Really appreciated the tutorial you provided! Fingers crossed this doesn't turn into a major repair.