Damn thieves (know a good muffler shop?)

Something missing here?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...i/IMAG0196.jpg

Bit of a startle when I cranked the Element after work today. These sorry pieces of ::Rant::. Middle of the day, front parking lot at work.

Anyone know a good(cheap) muffler shop in the mid cities area? I'm too cheap for full coverage so i'm looking for a deal. What's the best way to go about this? Generic fleabay cat? If you see where they cut it looks expensive to fix correctly, but i'm guessing a shop could just weld a new one back in there.


On the more funny side I got a ricer flyby by clapped out RX8 and a bonus mustang flyby + middle finger on the way home...guess the stock Honda Element is pretty intimidating after all. At least some entertainment while not being able to hear the radio.

Damn! Where do you work?

Any chance security cameras caught a glimpse of the thieves?

I guess those are really easy/popular to steal; same thing happened a few months ago on my wife's boss' Element.

I'd go fleabay and take it to Hercules Muffler on Carrol St @ I-30. Or junkyard Element cat from LKQ, if they sell em.

Rockauto shows a direct replacement cat for around $300.00 but looks like the flanges also got cut out of you system..... :-(

http://www.rockauto.com/getimage/get...lker/53478.jpg

Are junkyards legally able to sell cats? I thought there was some sort of federal law against it. I'd rather go that route to make sure I pass inspection next year if I could get the flanges welded back on. Well provided it was cheap enough. Thanks for the shop recommendation BTW.

I work in Coppell, the office building side, freeport/635. The officer told me that the top two catalyst thief cars are #2. Toyota SUVs and #1 Honda Elements. Not sure why, guess they're expensive parts and easy cars to crawl under.

Messed up. You can get top dollar for OEM cats at the scrap yard but most reputable scrap yards require seeing title to the vehicle the cat came off of.

^Doesn't seem to stop copper thieves either. Probably the same guys sawzalled about 10ft of wire and the junction box out of our backup generator at work a couple months ago. Caused about 10k in damage.

Looks like only the rear flange to the catback was cut. The other flange is further up the downpipe, still on the car. Bad news is there's an O2 sensor in the cat i'll have to buy as well (pretty cheap on ebay though)....

I'll call the junkyards in the morning, maybe I can get lucky and get one with the sensor still in it, if they sell them.

It's odd that CR-V's aren't in that "top" list too. They're mechanically identical to the Element, I thought.

Ricoh, our building neighbors, got hit yesterday around 10am. Toyota 4-runner.
IBM down the street got hit yesterday as well. I believe it was another Element.

Junk yards are not legally able to sell them. I'm now debating between the $300 OE replacement from Rock Auto, and the $50 ebay special. Any idea if the non Honda OE replacements will last longer than the reported "6 months if at all" for the cheapo fleabay cats? I'm not paying $750 for the OEM, but would only fork out $300+ if I knew it would last a couple years at least.