Random tech cats broken....

[SRTRICKY]

I know a lot of people on here have had problems with their random tech cats but I haven't heard of one like this...Both my passenger and driver side cats have the hangers ripped right off the pipe. I thought they might be stressed and took it back to my brothers dealership to get the mechanic to check it out and vitually no stress on them. I have no idea how the stupid things could rip right off. I called random tech about it and they said I have to ship the cats in...unfortunately finally its summer here...nice days and I don't want to have the car off the road while they are being shipped. Any else experience a problem like this? I'm tottaly ********** and it has ruined my past few days so I needed to rant a bit

Ricky
-lovin vipers since 92 but hating the 1001 "minor" problems they have

 

[Volltage]

I have the RT cats with about 7000 miles and no promlems "YET". Sorry to hear of your troubels. Let us know how it turns out.




AAHHHH!!! The price we pay to play. Wouldnt have it any other way!

 

[outnumbered]

No problems on my 04.One year old about 1500 miles.Hope it works out for you.Please keep us posted.

 

[Viper Specialty]

got to love RT's warranty system, they do it on purpose. Screw them, they should ship you a set of cats FREE, with your CC on file if you dont send the old ones back/or if they are denied for warranty.

 

[wormdoggy]

I would take pictures .....send them the email and tell them to send you new cats. I had a problem with an item I purchased and pictures speak a lot. I got the replacement part and later sent the defective part back with prepaid courier.

Send it to the person who makes the decisions and echo loudly your dissatisfaction.

Hope it works out for you.
Patrick

 

[SRTRICKY]

Yeah I called them up but they told me take pictures and we will give you an okay to get them welded yourself. Right now there not sure if they will cover them under warrenty if I don't send in pictures before welding?!?! Well to add to that they told me they would probably just weld the pieces together so I might as well do it myself and if I do not want to do it myself I can ship the cats there...Knowing damn well I won't be able to drive my car the entire time isn't really an option I want to go with!

 

[Phil]

Sorry to hear the problem Ricky, hope you can resolve it soon. By the way, we missed you on the passed Sunday's event. Hope we can meet each other at some other events. Takecare!

 

[Racer Robbie]

This is not the kind of problems we need to see. Have you talked to Jon at The Parts Rack about this problem. I have a set sitting here on the shelf that I am putting in a car this week that I bought form Jon. Like Final GTS said Random Cat should send you out a new set, next day air at their expense, charge your credit card, and credit you when they have inspected them. This is how reputable manufacture / vendor operates and takes care of their customers.

 

[SRTRICKY]

Sorry to hear the problem Ricky, hope you can resolve it soon. By the way, we missed you on the passed Sunday's event. Hope we can meet each other at some other events. Takecare!

Yeah sorry couldn't make it out didn't now early enough. Let me know when the next event is going to happen .


And yes I agree they should sent me a set of cats that I can install and credit my card back when I sent these ones. I will try calling again today and arrange something but last time they told me that they would not sent out new cats because these ones could be easily repaired I won't buy anything from random tech again.


I guess its just one of those weeks...damn vette broke down yesterday on the way to the beach...It just had its engine redone under warrenty...time for an import? lol
Ricky

 

[Racer Robbie]

I looked at the welds when I got to the shop and they look fine on mine. Time will tell. If they had only bent the hanger down around the pipe and welded it then it would have been a lot stronger. Any of you that are thinking of fixing your own cats should do this. Does anyone know of any other people making hi flow cats. By the way, did anyone call Jon at Parts Rack and ask him if he has seen this problem?

 

[edretti]

my hangar broke lose on both sides as well but I just had someone tack weld the hangar back in place, was no big deal and real quick. Don't stress over it too much.

 

[SRTRICKY]

my hangar broke lose on both sides as well but I just had someone tack weld the hangar back in place, was no big deal and real quick. Don't stress over it too much.

Glad I'm not the only one at least

I will have someone weld it together still a piss off!

 

[Steve-Indy]

Wonder if it is a combination of flakey welding and too much linear expansion when exhaust heats up to operating temp???

 

[Racer Robbie]

Steve, I believe it is a combination of both

 

[britospeed]

Atro how can you say its the welding if you haven't seen the fault. If the tubing is cracked around the weld it's the tubing that failed not the weld. If the weld cracked off the tubing or the hanger, then its the weld. Without seeing the actual piece it's impossible to tell. That being said, when I installed my cats the hangers were very difficult to bolt back to the mounting point at the front of the side sill. I ended up cutting them off and re welding them so there was less stress on the tubing.

 

[Nobody]

With the lack of flex joints (like the factory installed ones have)you will ALWAYS have this problem (among many others) with these cats (CRAPPY DESIGN)

 

[Racer Robbie]

Freeflyer, This is what I said, "I looked at the welds when I got to the shop and they look fine on mine." Like I said before I have a brand new set on the shelf and looked at them. You ask how do I know? The weld is only about 3/4" on my set which I believe is way to little, just look at the way the factory welded on the hangers on the stock system Also I was partners in a stainless steel frabrication business for 30 years where we built the bow rails for just about every boat manufacture in the USA. At Ocean Engineering we were not #1 in our industry by not knowing metallurgy.
Those brackets should wrap half way around the cat and be welded all the way around the bracket.

 

[Racer Robbie]

I have found another way to stop the movement of the engine that is caused by it's torque. As the stock cats have a flex pipe to take up this movement I looked for another way to eliminate the movement that perhaps is cracking the Random Cats welds. I installed a harder transmission mount and it has eliminated the movement for the most part. After putting 1500 miles on the Random cats I have not see a failure.
Robbie

 

[SRTRICKY]

I ended up paying almost $200 to get the mounts welded on again not fun...

 

[Racer Robbie]

that bites

 

[AllBlack]

****** to hear Ricky...

Im at about 2200 Km and not a single engine problem. Just minor stuff like the Window trim close to the windshield and the window on the door not closing under the soft top.

I still love her tho and I'm not gonna sell it for a while.

Nico

 

[Racer Robbie]

the window is supposed to go down a fraction of an inch when you open the door so that when you close the door the window goes up under the soft top. When you put your soft top up make sure your doors are open first and the engine is running. The trunk will open using the remote control, with the engine running, as long as the parking brake is on and the transmission is in neutral.
Robbie

 

[SRTRICKY]

the window is supposed to go down a fraction of an inch when you open the door so that when you close the door the window goes up under the soft top. When you put your soft top up make sure your doors are open first and the engine is running. The trunk will open using the remote control, with the engine running, as long as the parking brake is on and the transmission is in neutral.
Robbie

One time my window went too far up and when I tried to close it it sounded like it was going to shatter...Luckily it never opened the door it went down closed it went back up perfectly that was a scare

 

[AllBlack]

Robbie - yeah I do all that. Still closes over the soft top boarder. I have to close the door by pushing from the wondow in order for it to close normally.

Nico

 

[Racer Robbie]

The only other thing I can think of is that the top is not properlly lined up or installed correctly. This was a huge problem on british cars and one that I thought was solved on the viper. Set up an appointment with your viper dealer or better yet with a company that specializes in convertable tops.
Robbie

 

[zorroespanol]

Why are you guys bothering with cats?? : just take them out! (unless in CA)
get a couple of O2 sims so the idiot light stays off, and off you go.

Yes, car will run even better with a reprogrammed ECM, but the h.p. improvement is still substantial, and no more cooking your feet.

Worried about too much noise? get a bigger muffler and/or a Dynatech insert cone.

DO not feel guilty about being a polluter either. The car runs very clean, I have had dozens of cars w/o cats pass emissions testing in FLA (back when it was needed). we would gut the cat and put a pipe through it (for the visual inspection)

 

[Dimitrios]

i have Random Tech metal substrate cats that went bad. i bought a new pair for $400, they said they would look at em and refund some money if it wasnt a tuning issue. havent taken them up yet but will do and let you all know how it goes.

 

[Kenny]

Why are you guys bothering with cats?? : just take them out! (unless in CA)
get a couple of O2 sims so the idiot light stays off, and off you go.

Yes, car will run even better with a reprogrammed ECM, but the h.p. improvement is still substantial, and no more cooking your feet.

Worried about too much noise? get a bigger muffler and/or a Dynatech insert cone.

DO not feel guilty about being a polluter either. The car runs very clean, I have had dozens of cars w/o cats pass emissions testing in FLA (back when it was needed). we would gut the cat and put a pipe through it (for the visual inspection)

You are correct.

 

[Art 138]

Does anyone have the link to the vendor who sells the straight pipes(which replaces the cats) for the 02sims ???

 

[zorroespanol]

If you do not have access to a muffler shop that'll do this for you, How about the Mopar off-road exhaust?? I've seen it on E-bay for 750 approx... add $100 more for the sims and off you go.

should be a direct bolt on..