Ok - I'm going to save my ranting and raving against the local dealership that I'm having issues with.

Suffice it to say that my 2001 S40 has been diagnosed with the flex pipe issue that they extended the warranty to fix, however, they didn't extend it enough to cover my car - and Volvo is refusing even a good will repair.

So, now I'm faced with 2 options - bend over and take it from the dealership to get the work done, or have the local shop that's been doing all the work on this car for years now install either a) a new part or b) a "looks like new" used part.

Any experience with used catalytic converters/flex pipes in these cars?

Any recommendations for getting the dealership/volvo to come around and fix this problem that they aknowledge, but didn't notify me about, etc. etc. etc.?

 

I'm currently suffering the P0420 CEL code on my '03 which is the Catalytic converter. The converter and the flex pipe appear to be one part so I'm going to replace the flex pipe and the converter. I found parts on eBay which are about $225 shipped and I'm having my local muffler guy replace the part. It looks like the header bolts to the flex pipe side and the converter is connected to the muffler pipe with some sort of round clamp. I figure with 140K+ miles it will need some welding to remove/replace the parts. This part is guaranteed not to cause the CEL to come back on.