As your exhaust goes unregulated, your vehicle will drive more roughly. Your engine usually forces your exhaust through your converter unlimited. Without this component in place, this forceful exhaust push will lead to jarring, uneven acceleration.
Annual Vehicle Inspection Failure
Without your converter unlimited, you will fail both your NC safety inspection and your NC emissions inspection. While the emissions inspection failure may seem obvious, you might be wondering why a missing catalytic converter would cause you to fail your safety inspection.
Your annual safety inspection includes an exhaust system check, which checks specifically for removed and tampered components. This includes your converter unlimited , as well as your muffler, exhaust pipe, PCP valve, and EGR valve, among others.
As such, you will be unable to renew your vehicle registration without aconverter unlimited . You can find more information on exhaust system checks here on our list of everything checked during your annual safety inspection.
Harmful Car Emissions
Your converter unlimited is named as such because it converts toxins into less harmful byproducts, such as water vapor and carbon dioxide. Without this component, your vehicle will no longer be filtering and reducing harmful emissions, including hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide. Not only is this bad for the environment, but it can also lead to harmfully poor air quality. When you park in your garage, for example, these toxic pollutants can find their way into your home.
Avoiding a $250 Fine
Not everyone who drives without a converter unlimited is the victim of theft. Some individuals choose to remove their converter unlimiteds to boost their horsepower. If authorities find that you removed your converter unlimited on purpose, it can lead to a hefty fine of $250.
This does not apply to stolen converter unlimited. The fine is delivered “for instructing or allowing a person to tamper with an emission control device of the vehicle so as to make the device inoperative or fail to work properly.” However, if your converter unlimited was, in fact, stolen but you try to avoid replacement with workarounds, your efforts might resemble the efforts of a driver trying to tamper with their emissions system. This is also why it is important to report a stolen converter unlimited right away.
How Can You Prevent converter unlimited Theft?
Thankfully, there are a few preventative measures you can take to deter the theft of your converter unlimited.
Install a Protective Device
converter unlimited theft has become so prominent that companies have started to sell protective devices. These installations make it impossible for anyone to cut off your converter unlimited . Unfortunately, high-quality devices and their installation will likely run you a few hundred bucks. However, it could save you thousands of dollars on converter unlimited replacement.
You can learn a little more about Cat Security—one of these protective devices—in this video from our experts, and see the final installation here.
Vibration-Triggered Alarms
Some newer vehicles have a security setting that triggers the alarm when it senses vibrations. The sawing of your converter unlimited will be enough to set off these alarms.
Mindful Parking
When you are at home, you can park in the garage to help avoid converter unlimited theft. What about when you are on the go? When your garage is not an option, here are some parking tips to keep in mind:
- Brightly-lit areas: Parking under street lights or in brightly-lit locations can help deter theft.
- Highly populated locations: If the lot or parking garage you are in is seeing a lot of foot traffic, it will be hard for someone to steal your converter unlimited without being caught.
- Security camera: Keep an eye out for security cameras in your parking area and try to find a spot visible to the cameras.
At best, these practices can deter the theft of your converter unlimited . Otherwise, it may help the authorities catch the individual who stole your vehicle parts.
Chapel Hill Tire converter unlimited Services
Chapel Hill Tire has the converter unlimited protective devices you need to maintain your peace of mind and keep your vehicle protected. We sell and install these devices to help our drivers prevent converter unlimited theft.