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**cooljess76** · 12-04-2008, 10:50 PM

I wish I lived closer, I'd be more than happy to help you work on your car. Unfortunately it's sounding like you might have a bad catalytic converter. That's a very expensive part, about $1500-1800 at the dealership for a refurbished OEM unit. I've yet to hear of an aftermarket cat that works for more than a couple months. Since junkyards are not allowed to sell them (EPA laws), you might try searching the for sale section here or the classifieds on bf.c for people parting out their cars. If your car is a '95, it's OBD1. If it's a '96 or newer, it's an OBD2. You need to find a cat that's either OBD1 or OBD2, depending what year your car is. OBD2 catalytic converters have 2 oxygen sensors, while OBD1 cats only use one. Also, only 4 cylinder catalytic converters will fit our cars, so look for either a Z3 1.9L cat (if your car is OBD2) or perhaps a 318i, 318is, 318ci, or 318ti cat. You could probably find one for about 300-400 bucks which is pretty cheap considering the dealer's prices. Your other option would be to find a BMW 6 cylinder cat, they have two, cut one of them off and weld your flanges onto it to fit your car. This would be better if done by a shop of course. Do you remember what the actual code was? It shoud be something like "p11xx" or something to that effect. Best of luck to you, I'll try to help with as much information as I can.

Oh yeah, if you reset the codes and try to bring it to the shop before the CEL comes back on, they'll know because there's a few different monitors that need to complete their cycles before the ECU will read ready for inspection. So that probably won't work.

12-04-2008, 10:50 PM	#10
cooljess76 NOBODY F's with the Jesus Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ventura California Posts: 7,824 iTrader: (6) Photo Gallery	I wish I lived closer, I'd be more than happy to help you work on your car. Unfortunately it's sounding like you might have a bad catalytic converter. That's a very expensive part, about $1500-1800 at the dealership for a refurbished OEM unit. I've yet to hear of an aftermarket cat that works for more than a couple months. Since junkyards are not allowed to sell them (EPA laws), you might try searching the for sale section here or the classifieds on bf.c for people parting out their cars. If your car is a '95, it's OBD1. If it's a '96 or newer, it's an OBD2. You need to find a cat that's either OBD1 or OBD2, depending what year your car is. OBD2 catalytic converters have 2 oxygen sensors, while OBD1 cats only use one. Also, only 4 cylinder catalytic converters will fit our cars, so look for either a Z3 1.9L cat (if your car is OBD2) or perhaps a 318i, 318is, 318ci, or 318ti cat. You could probably find one for about 300-400 bucks which is pretty cheap considering the dealer's prices. Your other option would be to find a BMW 6 cylinder cat, they have two, cut one of them off and weld your flanges onto it to fit your car. This would be better if done by a shop of course. Do you remember what the actual code was? It shoud be something like "p11xx" or something to that effect. Best of luck to you, I'll try to help with as much information as I can. Oh yeah, if you reset the codes and try to bring it to the shop before the CEL comes back on, they'll know because there's a few different monitors that need to complete their cycles before the ECU will read ready for inspection. So that probably won't work. __________________ 4 MORE YEARS BABY!!!