Hello, my catalytic converter has started rattling so I stopped driving the car. Does anyone have any recommendations on a new one. I saw that Turner Motorsports has a replacement for $499. I realize that performancewise I could do other things but I still have to do emissions in the next couple years. Ive never had to replace a cat before so Im not sure what the price range would be. Thanks in advance for any responses. Justin.

That is the best price you are going to find on a cat for the E30 M3. I bought the same one for my car a couple of months ago. I thought mine cost about $550 + $35 for the gaskets and bolts. Then you will probably need to have it mounted because the bolts are so hard to remove. That cost me an additional $50.

I've installed the VSR cat on mine. Had it for the past 4 years and passed Ca smog test 2x so far.
http://www.vintagesportsracing.com/e30_exhaust.htm

I may be wrong, but when I was under my car, I think there was only a single pipe coming off of the exhaust manifold to the cat. Then I think one pipe exited the cat and then split to two pipes. The last shop, that I had my clutch replaced at, told me I had a crappy American catalytic converter on there. Could that be why it looks so funny down there?

It definitely could be the reason. After the headers, the exhaust should run through an X-pipe and be two pipes through the cat all the way back to the exhaust.

I also recommend the VSR unit. It is going on my car in the next couple of days, as my M3 is up at VSR right now. The previous owner bought an aftermarket cat similar to the TMS one. It has now been on the car for a whopping 35k miles, and it cracked at the X-pipe while on-track a few weeks ago. No point saving yourself a few bucks in the short term. Get something that everyone knows works really well, and is a quality item.

Feel free to give Mario (VSR owner) a call, he'll be happy to speak with you about it.

Cheers,

Will

Thanks Will, when you get your car back you wanna tell me how loud it is? I know it will sound good but Im only worried about the neighbors getting woken up. Thanks for all the input.