Do-It-Yourself maintenance is always the cheaper route to a repair, as you aren’t paying for a pro’s labor rate. The current average labor rate for an independent shop is around $80 per hour according to AAA, while dealerships average a little over $100 per hour. If the pro shop install takes two hours, you’re out $200 in just labor, on top of the cost of parts. If it takes you two hours to do it yourself, the labor rate is $0, so it’s only the cost of parts. Keep in mind that direct-fit cats designed specifically for your vehicle will install more smoothly than universal fit. It may be worth it to spring for the direct-fit and save your mechanic a half hour of work.
However, there are huge benefits to having a professional under your hood. It’s like having at trained chef making your meals or a skilled tailor making your clothes; an expert on the task can make a dramatic difference. There’s a risk involved when you’re just going by OBD-II codes and don’t know how to interpret them correctly.
“A professional can see other things going wrong with the system,” said Rakowski. “Just because they got the code for it, that doesn’t mean the catalytic converter is bad. It could be an exhaust leak, it could be oxygen sensors, it could be anything that has to do with feeding air or fuel into the system, and it could set that code.”
Rakowski has heard plenty of customers say they tried to fix the symptoms themselves. “They put in a cat for 350, 400 bucks, low and behold, a month later the code trips again.” Even if you install a brand new high quality catalytic converter, it will suffer the same problem and quickly fail unless the real culprit is found. The lesson is to properly diagnose the correct issue, not just fix the symptoms of failure.
Have you recently had a catalytic converter replaced? Did you go DIY or let the pros handle it? Let us know in the comments below.