Cat rattle: wrapup

As you may recall, I had a horrendous rattle in my '96 exhaust system and,
based on the stainless-steelness of the existing Flying Miata catback and a
little judicious malleting, decided the cat was the culprit. Since the
dealer wanted $500+ for a replacement cat, I got good advice here and found
a $109 replacement cat at Moss Motors.

I ordered the cat and 2 gaskets on Aug 15, and on the 20th the cat and one
gasket arrived. Dunno how they decided I only needed one, since there's two
pipes. I got on the phone and they sent another gasket (no shipping charge)
the next day. Maybe they should have charged shipping, since UPS now needed
12 days to get it to me (partly due to their creative delivery schedule;
e.g. "will try Monday after 5:00" actually means Tuesday at 3:00, etc.).

Today the dealer installed it ($58 labor, not too bad - I woulda done it but
having a lift makes it a lot easier). There is still a much much smaller
rattle in the front resonator, but most of the racket is gone - workable for
now. The exhaust note is basically unchanged, perhaps about .037db louder.
And an interesting hopefully temporary smell. Performance seems the same.
Unit looks exactly the same.

Thanks to those who pointed me to Moss. I'm happy with the cat; just make
sure they get your quantities right and ship with someone other than UPS.

miker

"miker" > wrote ....
and ship with someone other than UPS.
>
And do not, DO NOT! make arrangements to pick up your UPS shipment after a
failed delivery attempt. Take a day off from work to stay home all day
waiting for the delivery van, call in sick, do anything but show up at a UPS
depot and expect customer service.

Reminds me of how the railroads (before Amtrak) would treat their
passengers. Freight is where the money was (and is) and rail passengers
could take a flying leap. If you are not a UPS business customer, they
don't really want to deal with you.

--
Ken Lyons '97 Brilliant Black/'90 Classic Red
Inside the Beltway