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Took my car into subaru to get a check engine light looked at on my MY06 3.0RB wagon, turns out that my catalytic converters are stuffed and need to be replaced.
Subaru is asking $6000 (that is not a typo) to replace them .

Has anyone had to deal with this before?

Any advice would be appreciated

$6000 wtf!?

You'll be able to buy new ones from ebay quite cheap, around $100-200, take them to your mechanic/exhaust place and they can weld them into your exhaust.

You should be able to buy the cats & get them fitted for under $1k.

Do you have a stock exhaust?

The exhaust is stock.
I spoke to a couple exhaust specialists, it seems as if installing the wrong cat can potentially mess with the O2 sensors?
Not sure if that's true or not, but it makes me a bit hesitant to just buy a couple of ebay cats and have them welded in.

I've only owned the car for a couple months, so I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this stuff.

That check engine light is actually for the second o2 sensor either picking up a bad reading or throwing a tantrum.

There can be a number of things causing this, and it's not usually the cats going bad.

It will be a good idea to get someone with a tactrix cable on here, to log your car and take a look at things. You want to log your sensors and look out for anything out of the ordinary. At the very least I'd check with a good local subaru mechanic for a second opinion.

At the end of the day - it's not going to cost you anywhere near $6000. For example if it's just the rear sensor playing up - you could just turn the check engine light off permanently, it's only used for emissions... (once you're sure there aren't any real problems).

Has your car been tuned, modded and how many kms?

Had this problem in my 30rb last year.

Left cat collapsed. Was replaced with standard flow magnaflow cats at $500 each.

Its not the sensors even though they can be an issue yes. But stock exhaust generally always is cats.


They can also be a pain to fit due to sensors being timmid and needing correct placement so function properly.

Look up magmaflow replacement cats.

Has your car been tuned, modded and how many kms?

It's completely stock as far as I know, I only bought it 2 months ago and haven't had a chance to start playing with it yet. It's got 126k on the clock.

My local Subaru service centre did the checks to determine it was the cat, i've had it in there 3 times for the same engine light (Turns off for a while after they've looked at it, then will start up again) so I'm inclined to believe them about the cat being stuffed.

I'll book it in with a different mechanic to have a look before I go throwing money at a new exhaust.

If I am going to have to replace them, is there any performance gain to be had from replacing the current cats with high flow ones?

TheMightyGonzo wrote:

Has your car been tuned, modded and how many kms?

It's completely stock as far as I know, I only bought it 2 months ago and haven't had a chance to start playing with it yet. It's got 126k on the clock.

My local Subaru service centre did the checks to determine it was the cat, i've had it in there 3 times for the same engine light (Turns off for a while after they've looked at it, then will start up again) so I'm inclined to believe them about the cat being stuffed.

I'll book it in with a different mechanic to have a look before I go throwing money at a new exhaust.

If I am going to have to replace them, is there any performance gain to be had from replacing the current cats with high flow ones?

Sounds like you've been through some annoying times with Subaru. Did they remove and inspect your exhaust? There is no other way to diagnose a collapsed cat 100%. I had the same issue with my car and it turned out to be some strange niggle with the sensor, we turned the code off permanently and never worried about it again.

I strongly suggest you find someone with a tactrix cable to log your car, before you spend more money on it. Plenty of people on the forum all around Melbourne who can help you. Which area are you located in? Is your car driving badly at all?

And now for the fun part....you'll benefit from a higher flowing exhaust. A quality after-market exhaust (with new cats already built in) will definitely see some gains after a tune.

Edit: Exhaust should also cost around the same as getting new quality cats on their own

As far as I know, Subaru just plugged into the car and deduced the cause was a busted cat based off the readings and the recurring engine light, they didn't actually pull the exhaust off.

I strongly suggest you find someone with a tactrix cable to log your car, before you spend more money on it. Plenty of people on the forum all around Melbourne who can help you. Which area are you located in? Is your car driving badly at all?

I'm out in Doncaster. I know some people who have a subaru mechanic they've been using for years, I'll give him a call and see if he's able to double check the state of my cat. But I'm happy for any suggestions of mechanics out my direction (or even people to watch out for).
The car doesn't seem to be driving badly at all, but it does shudder a little at low revs when it's cold.

How much can I expect to part with to get an after market exhaust put onto the car?
Will the fact it's a 3.0RB be problematic at all?

TheMightyGonzo wrote:

I strongly suggest you find someone with a tactrix cable to log your car, before you spend more money on it. Plenty of people on the forum all around Melbourne who can help you. Which area are you located in? Is your car driving badly at all?

I'm out in Doncaster. I know some people who have a subaru mechanic they've been using for years, I'll give him a call and see if he's able to double check the state of my cat. But I'm happy for any suggestions of mechanics out my direction (or even people to watch out for).
The car doesn't seem to be driving badly at all, but it does shudder a little at low revs when it's cold.

How much can I expect to part with to get an after market exhaust put onto the car?
Will the fact it's a 3.0RB be problematic at all?

Pm sent

Forgot to mention - on the 3.0 the Headers/extractors in the exhaust are the most beneficial for power (from memory), but you'll need a tune to realise the gains. So when factoring in $$ - don't forget the tune money

30rbullet wrote:Had this problem in my 30rb last year.

Left cat collapsed. Was replaced with standard flow magnaflow cats at $500 each.

Its not the sensors even though they can be an issue yes. But stock exhaust generally always is cats.


They can also be a pain to fit due to sensors being timmid and needing correct placement so function properly.

Look up magmaflow replacement cats.

Have you pictures of the said collapsed cat? Do you know why/how it collapsed? You would have noticed a drop in performance or at least a rattly convertor?

Don't have the cat was a long time ago. They just clog up over time man and let fuck all through and choke the motor.

When the cats were replaced my power improved and response came back.
Was better on fuel too.

Had my 07 3.0rb throw the error with the cruise light flashing, Subaru wanted $5000 to replace mine! Needless to say I waited for the error to go away and have left the exhaust alone.

Had my 07 3.0rb throw the error with the cruise light flashing, Subaru wanted $5000 to replace mine! Needless to say I waited for the error to go away and have left the exhaust alone.

I'm pretty sure it's not something that will immediately cause catestrophic damage to my car, but hey, It's an excuse for a new exhaust.
Have you had any problems with the cats since? Does your car still throw the same error very often?

The factory cats are part of the factory headers, that's why subaru charge so much, as they replace the whole asm and not just the cats. As previously advised, if cats gets clogged then you suffer power loss and fuel efficiency. Cats can be changed but you need to hack your oe headers. Or you can buy Raptor flanged headers and cats of your choice and easy install to your oe mid pipe.

For what its worth, I had my raptor headers installed, plus two 200cel cats supplied and fitted, the third cat delete done on the GC for $650. Reasonable i thought.

Coupled with the latest and greatest KiDo update, the car is a sweet sounding menace.