Guys,

Can anyone please shed light on possible catalytic converter exemption? My minty mint 1G Legacy Turbo Estate has 17,000 miles from new, it’s right out of the box, but failed it’s MOT today due to emissions. The tester said it has no catalytic converter - and should have - so straight fail.

This was its first UK MOT, after being registered here, it was taken to Switzerland, I bought it from the original owner and brought it home.

I’m confused - cats became mandatory in U.K. from August 1992, my car was built on 2nd February 1993 - so it should be cat equipped. I understand that there are circumstances where cars built in 1993 (Imprezas were mentioned) can be cat exempt if they have a certain engine fitted (source Piston Heads).

My 2 litre Turbo engine - has the number 776885. How can this car have left the factory without a cat? There must be a reason. Can anyone shed any light please? Any advice/intel would be great - thank you.

Best

Andy H

 

all of them from 1989 had cats fitted, a single one just behind the turbo as the downpipe passes down the bulkhead.........

 

Thanks Stock. What's really puzzling is the MOT tester said the car has no cat, not that it has a duff cat...?! I need to get under it and have a proper look, I know where the cat should be and what it looks like. I cannot imagine that there's any chance that the cat has been removed - or what the purpose of that would be, given that Switzerland, where the car has lived for 27 years, has similar emission requirements to us.

After getting a proper look at the exhaust system. I will post an update.

Incidentally, way back, I had a 1990 2.2GX Legacy estate, true warrior of a car. During the big fuel protest of 2000, was it really that long ago...when unleaded petrol swiftly ran out, I was merrily and smugly putting leaded petrol in my Legacy because, I was convinced it had no cat. It didn't seem to mind and ran perfectly all the time I had it.

Best

Andy H