EPA recall of 1997 318ti catalytic converters
 

while researching replacements for my rattly cat i came across something that may help 1997 owners. Don't think this has been posted before:

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/cert/recall/420b02003.pdf

If I read this and find out that the PO of my car could have gotten a factory replacment for free rather than installing a cheap cat, and that I can't get the new improved cat because it's already been replaced... well... grrrrrrrrrr. :-(

Crap... I'm afraid to read it. LOL

Anybody with a 97 want to trade for my bad 96 cat? Can't believe the EPA did not make them go back further for the same problem.

On the good news front, since my exhaust Manifold cracked and my car sounds like a tank.. my check engine light has gone out

96cali,

I had mine replaced on my 98 because of a recall on them. This was done maybee 3 1/2 - 4 yrs ago when it was done. Mine crapped out so bad that I could not accelerate on the highway, top speed was like 40mph. Also I think this is only good if your car is under 100k in miles, it's some kind of federal law or something that is stated in the back of the owners manual.

They raised it to unlimited mileage (BMW did).

Thanks for the information. Now my question is long do we have to replace them? This was issued six years ago; I think that this may have expired by now. But again, thanks for the info, I am going to check if mine has been replaced yet.

The 1998 recall was for 10 years, so hopefully if yours is after July 3rd, you can get it replaced.

When was this? Also it's in the back of the owners manual as a federal law, how can bmw change a federal law?

The federal law would require a minimum time/mileage. BMW could certainly extend it past that if they wanted to.

Shoot. If they recalled it, im gonna follow up on it if the previous owner of my Ti took it in. Wouldnt mind new parts for now. Hopefully i can get them if it wasnt already done with the since its been issued yrs ago.

When I had my 1998 cat replaced, they checked to see if it actually failed first.

Mine was failed, I lost 85% of the hp in my car. The cat was all fallen apart inside and the air could not escape through the cat. I was told I was lucky and could have done some damage to the car with it that bad.


With a recall it doesn't matter if it's damaged or working it will get replaced.

So I wonder if they would replace my cat on my `97 Ti with 111k on the clock?

Call your local dealership up and ask them. I'm pretty sure they will unless the 100k thing i mentioned before is still in effect.

I called my local dealership. They asked for the last 7 letters/numbers of the VIN and replied "according to our system, your vehicle shows no recalls." It didn't matter that I had the BMW and EPA recall numbers that were on the report.

Oh well.