Emissions and forcing 02 readiness

[v.b]

My cbfa car, in the past, has set readiness with just a spacer on the last sensor (rai with middle sized hole). Since then I swapped the catless midpipe with a pipe with a 200cell cat and it has not been setting the readiness. Time to play with more spacers since I want to keep the cat for smell purposes.

 

[Beaker1]

so the conclusion is that big daddis mini cat is better for the post sensor?

Seemed to work like a charm for me. For the life of me trying to get a single post cat spacer to work, just didn't fly. I used the 42DD the RAI with small and medium insert and the big daddy mini cat. All three coded 0420. It was only when using the 42DD pre cat spaced pretty far out with the Big Daddy Mini cat post cat, that I could drive all I wanted and no 0420 code. I have the full APR tune so this is obviously set in stock mode where it's reading the post cat O2 sensor. Again just my experience on my CBFA car. Hope it helps.

 

[Beaker1]

My cbfa car, in the past, has set readiness with just a spacer on the last sensor (rai with middle sized hole). Since then I swapped the catless midpipe with a pipe with a 200cell cat and it has not been setting the readiness. Time to play with more spacers since I want to keep the cat for smell purposes.

Might be worth trying a medium insert RAI pre cat and small insert RAI post cat.

Not sure why mine was so difficult. Seems like there are folks on here that can pass with a a single post cat spacer. Mine just wouldn't do it.

 

[APRMK6GTi]

Seemed to work like a charm for me. For the life of me trying to get a single post cat spacer to work, just didn't fly. I used the 42DD the RAI with small and medium insert and the big daddy mini cat. All three coded 0420. It was only when using the 42DD pre cat spaced pretty far out with the Big Daddy Mini cat post cat, that I could drive all I wanted and no 0420 code. I have the full APR tune so this is obviously set in stock mode where it's reading the post cat O2 sensor. Again just my experience on my CBFA car. Hope it helps.

for your 42dd when you say you space it pretty far out meaning that you didn't thread it all the way in right? i'm just trying to figure this out too..thanks!

 

[Beaker1]

for your 42dd when you say you space it pretty far out meaning that you didn't thread it all the way in right? i'm just trying to figure this out too..thanks!

Exactly. Maybe only about 1/8 inch in or so. The bid daddy mini cat I screwed all the way in. Had to rotate the exhaust down to get it to fit thou which was a pain. After the test I took them off. Apparently the mini cat would get torched until race tune. Wanted to save them for my next inspection 2 years for now.

 

[Beaker1]

Exactly. Maybe only about 1/8 inch in or so. The bid daddy mini cat I screwed all the way in. Had to rotate the exhaust down to get it to fit thou which was a pain. After the test I took them off. Apparently the mini cat would get torched until race tune. Wanted to save them for my next inspection 2 years for now.

Truly is a pain in the ass until you get them set right. This was my 5th attempt.

 

[APRMK6GTi]

Thanks Beaker!

 

[Beaker1]

Thanks Beaker!

Best of luck. Cheers

 

[Crild]

I just installed a ROC euro straight spacer on my catless DP and 30 miles or so after clearing my CEL it pops back on. Any options here?

 

[Beaker1]

I just installed a ROC euro straight spacer on my catless DP and 30 miles or so after clearing my CEL it pops back on. Any options here?

Catless can be a little more challenging than working with a high flow cat. What's your setup as far as O2 sensors go, (2 or 3)?

 

[thez99]

Cbfa cars with high flow cat, two spacers are needed. I ran 42dd pre cat and a big daddies mini cat o2 spacer post cat and didn't throw a light at all regardless of highway or local driving. I'm running an APR turbo back exhaust and APR k04. Running only a post cat spacer I threw 0420 no matter what configuration I tried. I had the 42dd, the Ria and the big daddies mini cat o2 spacer. None of them worked. I had all of the spacers pointing towards the rear of the car. I ran the 42dd pretty far out too. My buddy is trying two rai spacers medium up front and small insert post cat. I'm in MD and you seem to need close to 100 miles to pass both readiness and have enough data in the system for them to approve. Hope this helps.

Funny, even with the APR dp and the tune AND a post cat sensor, your setup still didn't work..

Well, sucks I guess, however I call bull to the statement of "two spacer needed"
I had my spm catted dp installed, no spacer for a week no cel, then cel comes on, I install a bfi spacer midway facing back, a day after the cel is back on, my shop deleted it , came right back on for them, drove it for 2 days, it magically goes away. Has been away for 3 weeks now, and yes I've driven it, A/C on and off, highway, stop and go's out the ass, even a 900 miles roadtrip to the mountains, no cel. All I have is a BFI angled spacer screwed in midway facing backwards like it is supposed to be facing. That's my setup and it works fine, I have no doubt in stock mode i would pass all green. I'm not saying for some random reason, because the cbfa's sensors are so fucking finicky, the cel MAY come back for me at some point. But I doubt that.

I honestly can't say why some people have absolutely no issue, some people have been fucking with their spacers for days and weeks doing all this crazy shit with the angles, etc. to no avail, I honestly don't know. I was going to get the Griffin mini catalyst spacer back when the cel was on if it stayed on, but right about when I was going to get one, it came off and stayed off, so until for some random reason it does come back, I'm happy with my setup.

Realistically, I think probably atleast half of everyone's issues with catted dp's on their cbfas really weren't issues at all and if they'd just driven the car for a few days like I did the cel would've just gone away, rather then immediately think the worst and go hell bent on crazy spacer modifications, etc. Perhaps the dp and/or the spacer just needs a few days of driving to "break them in" before it starts reading as it should with such a setup, who knows..

 

[thez99]

I just installed a ROC euro straight spacer on my catless DP and 30 miles or so after clearing my CEL it pops back on. Any options here?

Catless = a whole different bag of shit. If you have hopes for no cel's with a catless setup, you've got another thing coming

 

[Beaker1]

Funny, even with the APR dp and the tune AND a post cat sensor, your setup still didn't work..

Well, sucks I guess, however I call bull to the statement of "two spacer needed"
I had my spm catted dp installed, no spacer for a week no cel, then cel comes on, I install a bfi spacer midway facing back, a day after the cel is back on, my shop deleted it , came right back on for them, drove it for 2 days, it magically goes away. Has been away for 3 weeks now, and yes I've driven it, A/C on and off, highway, stop and go's out the ass, even a 900 miles roadtrip to the mountains, no cel. All I have is a BFI angled spacer screwed in midway facing backwards like it is supposed to be facing. That's my setup and it works fine, I have no doubt in stock mode i would pass all green. I'm not saying for some random reason, because the cbfa's sensors are so fucking finicky, the cel MAY come back for me at some point. But I doubt that.

I honestly can't say why some people have absolutely no issue, some people have been fucking with their spacers for days and weeks doing all this crazy shit with the angles, etc. to no avail, I honestly don't know. I was going to get the Griffin mini catalyst spacer back when the cel was on if it stayed on, but right about when I was going to get one, it came off and stayed off, so until for some random reason it does come back, I'm happy with my setup.

Realistically, I think probably atleast half of everyone's issues with catted dp's on their cbfas really weren't issues at all and if they'd just driven the car for a few days like I did the cel would've just gone away, rather then immediately think the worst and go hell bent on crazy spacer modifications, etc. Perhaps the dp and/or the spacer just needs a few days of driving to "break them in" before it starts reading as it should with such a setup, who knows..

Yeah I am not exactly sure either. You're certainly right the CBFA's are a little more challenging for sure. All of the things you described above I tried. Drove the car in each set up for a week and over 200 miles each time. Just didn't seem to take for one reason or another. Not sure what the deal is. I would certainly try the one spacer for sure and let it ride for a while, but if that fails trying the 2 spacers may work for those folks with challenging CBFA cars. No BS here, just trying to help those are that are struggling with the same issue I was having. Cheers

 

[v.b]

My cbfa car set readiness all day long without a cat. Now with a cat and same spacer setup it doesn't..


spacer setup = rai spacer with mid-sized hole.

 

[thez99]

Honestly, if I was having THAT much trouble just by having a dp on this car, I would just say fuck it and fuck APR, sell the dp, put the stock one back on and ask APR wtf is the deal with their fucking dp not even passing as they advertise it would. I mean, when I was at my apr dealer (shop) getting the code figured out and deleted, they were even telling me to get the apr pipe instead as that's the "only pipe known to work perfectly with the tune and pass emissions with a spacer no problem", like any other dp is just not "documented" to work the way it should via inspections, etc.? Nah, I mean I love having the opened up dp, but if down the road it starts giving me shit, I'm not going through spacer hell, I have my stocker, ill just trade em out, sell the spm pipe and call it a day :thumbup:

Btw, any chance anyone knows if the mk7 gti has the same shit deal with 3 o2 sensors??