loss of power :(

[HJ2]

My point exactly.
Check if pre-cat isn't cloaked as well.

[rip]

The car will run fine (better) without it. Just beware of the dreaded boostcreep.
I didn't get this,but is the main cat cloaked or the pre cat?

Boost creep? UK SE's never had a cat or pre-cat. They never suffered from boost creep with the standard exhaust.

In answer to an earlier question, the engine & turbo do share oil. The turbo uses this for cooling as well as lubrication.

[HJ2]

A non-existing cat cannot be cloaked ...
... but.. you're right about the creep. Not everybody has an upgraded exhaust

[stonefish]

had same problem with my s2....the main cat collapsed so changed whole exhaust with stainless and no main cat..for the same price as a cat.as long as the pre cat is ok it will still pass an mot..

[smilerbaker]

Right, garage has finally got the cat off, he said its totally black inside and must have got too hot.

Now I know it failed half way through germany, and I had to drive another 500km with it broken, then I did the mountain passes a couple of days later so another 300 or so km (I know I know but I wasn't going to miss this run as thats why I bought the car) so would that be enough to totally blacken the inside of the cat? or is there some other problem that made it get too hot?

how long would a cat normally last??

[smilerbaker]

Got the car back lastnight, wow, what a difference, the cat must have been on the way out when I picked it up as now the turbo gauge goes all the way upto .75 bar and it feels like someone has run into the back of me when I floor it

Only down side is I know now why people moan about the standard brakes

[HJ2]

Good news

[tigerdog]

would that be enough to totally blacken the inside of the cat? or is there some other problem that made it get too hot?
how long would a cat normally last??

Usually a catalyst will last many years or tens (or hundreds) of thousands of kilometers but only if the engine is running properly all the time. If it ever over-fuels or is driven, even briefly, with a bad missfire that allows raw fuel/air mix to enter the cat, then you can certainly overheat the catalyst. In my case, the failure was probably triggered when a cracked coolant overflow dumped coolant onto the ignition coils. I was forced to drive about 25 KM while running on 2-3 cylinders. Since I don't have a pre-cat, the main cat took the punishment; that was apparently enough to do the damage. I didn't notice it until quite a while later, though, when the cracked substrate finally blocked enough to give me symptoms similar to yours. My car now has a small plastic diverter under the overflow bottle that will hopefully keep the coils dry when the bottle fails again.