For the trouble, those thieves can net between $50 and $300 from a recycler. In less than a minute, they can pull the converter loose from the exhaust with a cordless reciprocating saw and disappear into the night. With this knowledge, thieves have been targeting catalytic converters and have gotten very accomplished at swiping them in an instant. To put that into perspective, gold cost $68 per gram. In the summer of 2023, prices for those metals cost as much as $33 per gram of platinum, $42 for palladium and a whopping $146 for rhodium. There are typically three to seven grams of platinum in a converter, along with up to seven grams of palladium and two grams of rhodium.

Why are catalytic converters being stolen?Ĭonverters have been in the news because of those precious metals inside. Later developments also reduced nitrogen oxides. Early catalytic converters combined oxygen, carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons to produce less harmful CO2 and water vapor. Inside are precious metals such as platinum, rhodium and palladium that are used in chemical reactions to transform emissions into less destructive compounds. In most cases, it looks like a flattened muffler that resides about halfway down the exhaust pipes. A side benefit was the elimination of lead additives in fuel since those compounds were incompatible with catalytic converters.Ī catalytic converter is a component of an internal combustion vehicle's exhaust system. Combined with other abatement programs, air quality greatly improved over the following years. In 1975, the government mandated catalytic converters for almost all passenger vehicles in an effort to reduce air pollution. If your car isn't a classic and is powered by a gasoline engine, the answer is very likely yes. But what is a catalytic converter, how does it work and how can you prevent one from being stolen? Do all cars have a catalytic converter? In fact, as many as 153,000 catalytic converters were stolen in 2022 alone, and the numbers in 2023 could be even higher. An uptick in converter thefts has gotten plenty of coverage as many vehicle owners are left in very inconvenient situations as they are saddled with expensive repair bills. What is a catalytic converter? And how can you protect yourself from theft? And why are catalytic converters being stolen?Ĭatalytic converters have been featured prominently in the news for a few years, and not for the best of reasons.

2012 ford escape catalytic converter