I semi-knew this was going to happen... when I did the prepurchase emissions test before I bought the car I knew the NOx was close. In fact, the NOx levels failed the the first time and then passed the second time. Quote the mechanic "it has to do w/ the cat, but on a cool day w/ the fan on it if the car is cold you should pass". The problem is there aren't any cool days on the horizon. Its almost July, and cool days won't be available again until sept. This is somewhat of a problem given the fact that I only have 30 days to have the car inspected again (screw emissions anyways). My question is, knowing that the cats for these cars are upwards of 6 bills just for the part, do I have any other options?
I just did a quick search on e-bay and found this :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Catco-Catalytic-Converter-Mercedes-300E-92-91-90-89-88_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33629QQihZ001QQitemZ110130600669QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V
$255 is a lot better than 6 bills, and for that price, I know another mechanic who would install the part, provided I also pay whatever he would have made on the markup.
The NOx levels of this recent test were 3.49 w/ the limit at 3.25. When I did the pretest on a semi hot day 3 weeks ago, w/out the fan on the car, it came out w/ levels of 3.25.
On a side note, since it was Viti that did the inspection I didn't entirely waste my $47, I got a detail, wash, and wax, which makes me pretty happy as well.