Who should and should NOT buy a 2001-03 Prius

Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet

 

Compared to doing what?

 

I am actively looking last of the 03 coupes just missed on here. 4k 74K miles daum

SM-A715F ?

 

I would add theft of catalytic converter to the very expensive repairs list. Potential buyers and new owners should be aware of this issue.

If they are in CA or the other 3 states that don't allow any replacement except the OEM Cat, you can easily double the cost of a used Gen 1 when (not if) your cat gets stolen.

Anyone with an OEM cat should take steps to prevent it from being stolen, and it is really only cost effective to buy a Gen 1 in states that allow replacement of cat with a Federal aftermarket cat.

Really if you live in a Federal emissions state and buy a gen 1 with the original cat, you should remove it and sell it yourself (for the metal value or to a member in a CA/CARB emissions state), and then put on a Gen 2 aftermarket which is less likely to get stolen (less valuable metals in it). That will save you the headache of waking up one morning and finding your cat gone.

 

Without a functioning HCAC actuator, you cannot put a G2 cat on G1

 

Au contraire mon frere:
Tricking HCAC codes into going away? | PriusChat

 

I haven't read this entire thread. I just started in on the OP and thought it needed to be updated.

Skipping to the end, I see Soren is providing the essential element that I wanted to add. However, that element - cat theft - changes other dynamics of the value prop since Bob's original description. To wit:

It's hard/expensive to find some of the parts for these cars - if you search the typical plays like Ebay, Toyota, dismantlers, etc. Ultimately, it's because so few Gen1s were sold. Even the dismantlers aren't buying them any more to part out. They just salvage the cats and scrap the rest. Where it's not hard to find parts is the salvage car auctions, and usually the parts are free - if the car has the original cat.

These cars are basically selling for the value of the recycled cat at auction when they have any significant wreck. No one is repairing them. I've bought several of these cars, even driven them home because they still ran fine, and then sold the cat to get most/all of my money back and had all the parts left for free.

That changes the entire value proposition a lot.

I'd also emphasize Soren's warning - no way would I own one of these cars in a CARB-compliant state (CA, WA, CO, NY, IIRC). When your cat gets stolen, your insurance company will total it out. If your car is just in a minor wreck, it will be totaled out because the insurance company knows it's just a matter of time before the cat gets stolen and they'll be paying that claim. And when it gets stolen, and you have to buy the high-dollar CARB cat to replace it, it'll just get stolen again.

If you live in one of those states, do as Soren says - steal your own cat, replace it aftermarket, and then ship the car out of state to sell it.

Shame is, a high percentage of all the Gen1s ever sold were bought in CA, and those other 3 states were among the highest. Because insurers are totaling any of these cars that come across the desks in those states, we're losing these cars rapidly.

The good news, we're actually seeing a greater number of the "cherries" come up in the auctions. All of these that weren't maintained well or were driven high miles are pretty much gone now. More of the ones left were well-maintained but got into a little fender-bender. With free parts, they become very reliable, low mile, low cost cars. Literally, you can do the math and see how just the saving in fuel costs return all your money before it should die. Low enough cost that you just throw them away when they finally die.

 

I live in Switzerland and I had a catalytic-converter that could not be identified during the last recurrent car control. So I had to replace it with an original one and it was not possible to find one. Some guy made me a workaround by installing a modified catalytic converter for the Prius 2.
I can go into details by PM if you want... But I know that if the controller had realised what was really done, this Prius wouldn't have passed the control.
By chance, I recently found a prius at a car recycler and immediately went there to buy the original catalytic-converter.
Maybe I need it for the next car control...

 

Yes each generation of the Prius has a weird catalytic converter so if you run up on one like you have or need generally you should grab it and just put it up if you have to have that sort of thing where you live where I live I don't have to have a catalytic converter or if it's bypassed it's not a problem generally what people do is take the assembly down and break out the catalyst or the brick inside the catalytic converter and then just put it back in place so it looks like it's there but it's what we call gutted.

 

The Prius 1 and 2 have the same engine. Though, the enginge of the Prius 2 has more power.
The Prius 1 has a one-part-cat, the Prius 2 has a two-part-cat.

The two parts of the Prius 2 two-part-cat have each their own identification number.

So in the datasheet of the Prius 2 cat there is the identification number of the first part, lets say 'X'.
But because there is also identification number 'Y' on the second part, it is written in the datasheet that 'Y' is also known as 'X'.
Because the guys who have written the datasheet didn't think about the possibility to separate X and Y...
So obviously from their view, where is an 'Y' there is also an 'X', hence 'Y' ist known as 'X'.

So, because both cars have the same engine, theoretically the Prius 2 cat works also for the Prius 1.
The problem is the difference of power. If you would attach the Prius 2 cat with both parts on a Prius 1 that will create problems in the engine control unit or so... At least it is what I was told by the guy who installed it.

So he just cut off the second part and installed the first one.

Then the guy controlling my car told me that he cant find the identification number 'X' according to the datasheet!

So I showed him the part of the datasheet where it is written that 'Y' ist also known as 'X'. And indeed, he found 'Y'.

But what's not written in the datasheet is that the two-part-cat works as single unit and is not meant to be separated in a single 'X' or single 'Y'.

 

I don't know about any of that but as far as the cats goes from what I can see it's just two pieces I could have this made in a shop locally if I wanted to but apparently the Prius in the line of Toyota has a special cat with extra precious metals in it or something along those lines and because the prius system runs a sort of flood test on the converter a regular converter I guess won't stand up to that kind of hammering apparently.

 

It mainly depends on location if you have to have the cat in the car and they test for it to be working then well you have to have the expensive Toyota cat in the car If you live like where I do in a county.where there is no emissions. I can take it off clean it out make it a straight pipe put it back in place because they don't check it they just visually look to see if something that looks like the catalytic converter is in place in the piping then they check the lights horn and the turn signals and I'm gone done with that inspection and some parts of the United States they check for these parts and then they check the output of the exhaust gas to make sure it's getting cleaned up to some range for the model year of the vehicle much more stringent type testing.

 

The funny thing is, the inspectors were just keen on that identification number.
They didn't even bother to test the exhaust emissions though they are equipped for that. I really wonder what would be the results of such a test with that modified cat or the non-identifiable one that was installed before.

 

In California now I think they generally look for the stampings and the numbers on the cat when they look at all It's a big thing with the Prius in the last few years other cars they may not check at all because they can just take a $100 $5,500 lb and lower or higher weight car and that's what you get for a cat It's only the Prius and maybe one or two other models in the world that are so specific with their catalysts most catalysts that go in a car stored in exhaust shops on the shelves and they're not worth stealing or anything and it's got them stacked up in the store room.

 

I'm not sure I follow what was meant by one-part and two-part here.

The gen 1 Prius has a front pipe with two catalytic converters, and the third lump after those two is a resonator.

Both catalytic converters are the TWC (three-way catalyst) type, and the second one has an extra shell of hydrocarbon-absorbing material around it, and a fancy valve.

 

In our country the original Toyota Cat for the Prius 1 has the Cat in one lump. And the Cat for Prius 2 hast two lumps as depicted in your illustration.
Here you have a picture of the original Toyota Cat for the Prius 1.

 

Ah, Switzerland, ok.

 

The twc in gen2 look like the under 5K pounds converters with a spacer pipe between. But apparently not and seemingly that there's some higher material content jobbies or something.

 

And here a picture of the BM Catalyst
BM91617H

The lump in the black circle has been removed. ID numbers are on the first and second lump.