BMW 325i Catalytic Converter Scrap Value – How Much Can You Expect?

Usually, BMW cars are considered to be premium vehicles. They are really much better than many counterparts on the market, and their owners are supposed to have some money in their pockets. It's not just because they managed to buy a car that is over the mid-price range, but because they have to maintain and repair their BMW somehow.

So, today, we'll be looking at the scrap price of the catalytic converter in your BMW 325i. It's important for those owners who want to replace or delete the converter. But how much will companies and private buyers pay for it? Let's look at the main factors that can change the price of your BMW catalytic converter.

Here's what we are going to discuss today:

1.     BMW 325i catalytic converters - sizes, types, and locations.

2.     How much will a BMW 325i cat converter cost when broken or clogged?

3.     Where can you sell your BMW catalytic converter?

4.     Can you just delete the catalytic converter from your BMW 325i?

Let's get started!

Where are the BMW 325i catalytic converters located?

The problem with the 325i is obvious - converters are pretty hard to locate. As a rule, two of them are installed near the exhaust manifold. The model has a straight 6 engine with 6 cylinders, so basically, two pipes are connected to the engine to deliver exhaust gases to the atmosphere. But before that, the gases go through the converters.

These cats that are placed near the engine are pre-cats. They are smaller and they don't cost a lot when broken or clogged. You should pay more attention to the cat converters that are located near the muffler. Here, the main catalytic converters are installed. It can be a single cat or two converters, depending on the year of the vehicle.

Here are some facts to know about the BMW 325i catalytic converters:

• different years of the vehicle may have three or four converters in total, but aftermarket assemblies may offer different options;
• main cats are more valuable, they contain more precious metals and may be much more lucrative for recycling companies;
• these converters contain palladium and platinum, also main cats usually contain up to two grams of rhodium;
• the majority of BMW converters are in pretty good condition because they are protected from any rust issues and damages;
• these cats are made by BMW from really long-lasting materials, which means they are durable and will go more than 120,000 miles;
• aftermarket cats don't bring you that much money, they are usually sold for $20 or something like that and aren't worth your time.

All you want to see in the exhaust assembly of your car are BMW OEM catalytic converters. Only OEM parts are really valuable and can be sold at a good price. All other cats are just worthless and will only be sold to one of the local scrapyards because their shipping usually costs more than a recycling company may pay for them.

To make sure you have an OEM catalytic converter in your hands, just look at it carefully. It should be big and heavy, it should have the serial number on it. Sometimes, older cats will also have the BMW logo on them.

How much should a BMW 325i converter cost?

An old converter from your BMW that is clogged or broken can still be sold. Don't throw away this piece of scrap metal because it contains platinum and palladium that can be recycled and sold to businesses.

We know a lot of factors that can influence the actual price of the catalytic converter scrap. First of all, it's the market. Prices for precious metals go up and down every day and they are the main factors for converter prices. Also, the condition of the cat is important. Cats with holes won't be sold at a good price.

Here are some things that will help you to be aware of prices:

• only OEM converters are valuable, so make sure you have the original BMW cat and then continue investigating;
• the easiest way to know the fair price for your converter is by using the serial number if you still can see it on the cat's body;
• the catalytic converter that is completely broken or aftermarket is not going to be sold at a big price, $20 is the maximum;
• the average pre-cat from the BMW 325i should cost about $60 to $80 and sometimes even more than that;
• the average main catalytic converter from the BMW 325i will cost over $200 which is not a bad chance to earn some money;
• the eventual price will also depend on numerous other factors, like the place where you've decided to sell the converter.

Look at possible options and find the best place where you can sell the BMW 325i catalytic converter at the best possible price. How can you find that out? Just forget about companies and private buyers that pay a little money for cats. For example. scrapyards and middlemen are bad choices.

You can get much more money if you sell your catalytic converter to a recycling company or via eBay. If you decide to use a marketplace like eBay or maybe specialized forums to advertise your catalytic converter for sale, you will have to spend some time on that. And the final price is still to be discovered because people will bargain.

How to sell a cat converter to a recycling company?

In our opinion, the best way to get rid of the old catalytic converter from your BMW 325i is by one of the recycling companies in your state or even in some neighboring states. Why? Because these companies compete with each other and want to offer you the best possible price just to get the chance to buy your catalytic converter.

Selling a cat to these companies is easy if you know how to do it. So, we've decided to provide you with a short instruction on how you can sell the cat converter that is already malfunctioning.

Here are some of the main steps for this:

• first, take pictures of the converter in order to send these pics to a specialist for price estimation;
• then, go online and find some companies that buy our cat converters from private owners;
• usually, these companies have their own websites and allow you to quote online;
• quote and send pictures to these guys so that they could estimate the price and send the offer to you;
• once they all give their offers, compare them and choose the recycling company with the best possible price;
• then, the last thing you will need to do is to ship the converter (probably, they will even pay for shipping).

After investigating the possible price for your catalytic converter, you will have the average price range and the top offer from recycling companies. If you still can sell the converter at a better price on eBay or on one of the forums, just go for it and get more money.

But as far as we know, eBay won't offer such a fast and lucrative deal as a chosen in that way recycling company. So, you should just check - at least, you will know the price range for your type of cat. Inquiring about the price won't make you sell the catalytic converter from your BMW.

Deleting the cat in your BMW 325i - is it legal?

No, deleting a catalytic converter won't be legal in pretty much every state in the US. Some states will even find you for replacing your cat with a cheap aftermarket converter that obviously shows worse efficiency. The BMW 325i has very expensive catalytic converters. The whole assembly (OEM) will cost over $3,500 which is just an insane price for this car.

But you can go for aftermarket cats. The only thing you need to know is that the majority of aftermarket converters in the low-price niche won't be efficient enough to pass the fog test. The annual check will lead to a fine. So, you should buy some cats made by well-known brands that guarantee your new cat will pass the annual ecology check.

If you live in a state that has light limitations for cars in terms of ecology, you may try deleting the converter and installing a big metal tube instead. The tube will stop the fire from getting into the muffler and destroying it. But you will also need some ECU tuning to get rid of the annoying Check Engine symbol on your dashboard.

Final words

We are sure that the owners of the BMW 325i don't want to invest in catalytic converter replacement. They would spend this money on performance tuning, new brakes, or wonderful interior upgrades. They would pay to have a turbocharger installed in their engine or they would use this money for fuel to travel to some wonderful places in their car.

But still, you should remember about fog tests. So, the best way is to sell your old OEM catalytic converter to compensate for your expenditures.