I am going to have to replace the mufflers on our 1992 960 as they are getting pretty rotten. The car has 211,000km (about 130,000 miles) on it and runs like a champ. The exhaust system is original. How do I know if I should be replacing the cat? What is the life expectancy of the OEM cat? Should I expect better performance with a new cat?
I was looking at a complete setup from FCP and it runs about $462 USD ($540 Cdn) for mainly Starla components, plus shipping; is this a good deal?
Any advice in this matter would be appreciated.
TIA
John Dymond

My 945 has about 489000 km with the original cat, and still passes emissions test. If there are no other fuel injection/ignition problems and emissions are OK, I wouldn't bother replace it.

HTH
mila

What fuel/igition related problems will one encounter when the cat is going bad?
JD

If the cat is flooded with unburnt fuel before it's started it can be damaged.
That can happen if the car is hard to start and the starter is run for very long, or you try to start it by pushing or towing.

HTH
mila

I wouldn't replace it unless it is plugged up. They'll usually rattle when the insides come apart. An ' 84 240 that I had a few months ago was doing this. On your 960, I'd use OE mufflers if possible. They're not cheap, but really last a long time. Just last night I replaced both mufflers on my '94 Mercedes E320. They were rotted as well. The Benz OE mufflers ran around $500 for both with my discount, but fit very well. The car now sounds much better.

Good luck with yours.

Dave