Catalytic Converter Replacement

[HoppyKJ]

I have a 2005 Ltd 3.7litre petrol and need to replace the car converter.
Any suggestions as to an aftermarket part to suit?
I’m in Australia and OEM parts are difficult to get now and very pricey.

 

[Shankster]

I have a 2005 Ltd 3.7litre petrol and need to replace the car converter.
Any suggestions as to an aftermarket part to suit?
I’m in Australia and OEM parts are difficult to get now and very pricey.

I've gone with Canadian generic no-name cats off ebay on a couple of cars (Subaru Outback and Ford Escape) with mixed results. They were not legal for California, New York and New Jersey but were really cheap (around $100 shipped from Canada to me in Colorado). If I wanted 50 US state certified the price was going to be x10. I see similar parts for the Liberty on ebay. The cats for the Ford Escape gave me no issues but I got a check engine light for catalytic converter below temp or something like that on the Subaru after a few thousand miles (to be fair the cats could have got contaminated by excessive oil burning). I could reset the CEL but it would come back after 1000 miles or so. The original Subaru heat shields also needed modification to fit on the new cats but otherwise fit well. I don't know what the laws are in Australia but if you can I'd just go with something like that and hope it works out, or if it's legal (it's not legal to sell used cats in the US) you could buy used ones off a wrecked Liberty. In my opinion buying new OEM (or CA, NJ, NY certified) cats on cars of this age just doesn't make any sense.

And obviously, if there is an underlying issue that destroyed your factory cats you'll want to identify and fix it before replacing them. Raw fuel, coolant or burned oil in the exhaust could all be culprits. Seems to me that cats last indefinitely unless they get contaminated because of an engine issue.