Mine is a naturally aspirated straight six double overhead cam, dual VANOS gasoline engine. This is the dual VANOS version of the bulletproof engine that BMW built for decades except that for the e46 model, some rocket scientist at BMW thought that low tension piston rings would be a good idea. Wrong!
I don’t know that there has ever been a supercharged BMW engine.
Turbochargers did not become popular on BMWs until 2012 when they started putting the turbocharged 4 cyl N20 engine in many models. That engine was a turkey. All turbocharged BMWs tend to suffer from the additional heat in the engine compartment.
Direct injection came into vogue around 2015 with the B48 engine. That was another really bad idea that sounded good to the engineers.
A great idea…badly implemented by BMW and others. Every engine that went DI gained hp and fuel economy. The best design seems to be one direct and one airstream injector per cylinder to keep the intake valves clean.
The end of the story: I pled my case to both the California Air Resources Board and to the Bureau of Automotive Repair.
Both were sympathetic and conceded that this situation is very unfortunate for me, and there is clearly no environmental impact from using this catalyst. However, this is not their problem, and no one has the authority to cut me any slack on this.
It is illegal to put a used catalyst on a California car, and a new BMW Catalyst is $3300 plus $2500 core charge for an old BMW catalyst (which I don’t have). I could probably buy a used catalyst for $500 to use as a core.
I have until November when my registration must be renewed to sell my wagon out of state.
It is a pristine-looking, white, accident-free, rust-free, completely stock, manual transmission, factory sport suspension and seats, e46 wagon. A half-dozen Californians have approached me through the years wanting to buy it, so selling it out of state may be a pain, but should be do-able…
I would either move out of CA, or just post the car for sale on Craigslist to an out-of-state buyer. There is nothing magical about having special California approval numbers engraved on the outside of a catalytic converter, versus a non-approved version which still cleans up the exhaust gases enough to meet emissions standards.
I find it interesting that two boards agree it is not a problem but have no authority to approve. So what are they there for and who does? This is regulations going amock. This was feared as an outcome in 1830. So you spent the $3000 to $5000 needlessly just to satisfy the system or sell your property just for the privilege of being close to the kids? Get the kids out too. Otoh, it’s 800 miles between Minnesota and Ohio and you get used to the kids not living down the block. How long would the extremists allow you to drive that car anyway?
If I were in that situation myself, I’d just spend the $500 for the core and the $3300 for the new BMW cat, $3800 later, car is back on the road. My main concern with this approach would be that whatever damaged the current cat will damage the new one, so I’d want to double check the engine is running properly. Seems better than the hassle & expense of buying another car.
Buying a replacement cat not in your current plan? Then if you already have another vehicle to drive and legal place to put this one, put your BMW on PNO (planned no operation) status, and drive your other vehicle instead. Fast-idle your BMW in your driveway for 20 minutes once a week to keep everything lubed, & heat up the engine & exhaust system to normal operating temperature.
Sorry but park a perfectly good car that you like to drive simply because of some silly regulation? When do you folks rise up in protest? This really reminds me of domestic abuse victims that after a while just comply with their abuser and find nothing wrong with that.
Everybody is bossed around, by silly regulations or otherwise. We’re born, our parents boss us. We go to grammar school, our teacher’s boss us. We graduate, get married, our spouses boss us . We get a job, that’s right, our bosses boss us! OMG!! Even if we somehow figure out a path to freedom from all of those bosses, we’ll get a letter in the mail saying we’ve been selected for jury duty … that’s right, we thought we were finally free, but now the court is going to boss us … lol …
Rising up against a silly vehicle regulation? Seems more practical just to park the car up, write some complaint letters if you like, and at the next election vote for someone more to your liking.
What destroyed my cats in the first place ten years ago was that the cats plugged up with ash from burning oil. When I bought the car with 100k miles, I quickly discovered that the cursed BMW low tension piston rings were stuck in the piston grooves and apparently had been stuck for some time, causing the engine to burn oil like crazy. That problem is resolved now. I spent a lot of money and work on that car the first two years I owned it, but then I enjoyed it for 175k miles so it turned out OK for me.
I don’t want to spend big money replacing a cat because 1) It is infuriating to spend so much replacing a perfectly good part and 2) this 20-year-old BMW has 275k miles on it so I would be spending just about what I expect to sell it for, and putting in a lot of work (I have to lift the engine and remove an engine mount), to break even. I would be time and money ahead to just go drive it into the river.
It is fully insured. Perhaps I should park it downtown with the keys in it…;-).
As for voting in different people, that won’t work in California. 90% of the voters in California vote for whatever sounds “progressive”. They don’t have enough attention span to pay attention to the results of ever-expanding government.
I understand your frustration. My San Diego friend had to pay a shop $300, when the only problem was one of the readiness monitors needed to be completed, so the car could pass its emissions test and obtain a new registration sticker. Very frustrating to have to pay a $300 fee for a car already in perfect operating condition.
I’m not so sure about that theory. I’m starting to hear a lot of complaints in media interviews about the current crop of California’s elected politicians. I heard a radio interview where a majority-party candidate for the vacant US Senate seat election, speaking of the serious nature of the various problems, say “People are leaving California in droves!”.
Voter complaints are not so much that the state is too progressive, but that many of the state’s policies are lacking common sense. I switched 3 of my primary ballot votes after my Corolla was forced off the road by the nonsensical Covid/emissions issue. None of those candidates won of course. I’d have done write-ins for the final election, but there’s no allowance for write ins. The final election usually serves up two candidates for each spot. Voters have to choose one or the other. I expect eventually the minority party will determine they must offer candidates holding positions that can win approval in a progressive leaning state.
Question for anyone willing to answer: Just curious, if you had the power to change the rules, what would you do in a situation like this? My thinking, as long the OP car’s tailpipe emissions test within limits, it seems like the currently installed cat should be allowed.
Yes it should be allowed period, end of story. Those who hide behind rules and regulations . . .
In Minnesota it took a 3rd party governor to finally dump the emission checks that benefitted no one except the private test sites. Never heard from skip Humphrey again. Dodged a bullet. And interestingly it was the younger folks that did it. The son of Hubert who in 1948 along with Orville freeman, cleaned up the party. Their sons though leave a lot to be desired.
What states do treadmill testing anymore? There’s no way to know if it meets requirements without empirical testing and that is expensive to do. It’s far cheaper to just force oem compliance. That being said, I’m in favor of empowering the compliance people with authority to make judgment calls like this one. Powers that be are probably afraid they will run amok if the rules are not black and white…
Well it’s about 638 pages but tocqvilles American experiment warned of these things back in 1830. Centralized administration instead of centralized policy. He cited New York state as being the biggest abuser at the time. California was not a state yet. Sorry but it is a natural result like beating a dog.
