I recently posted on the reg B5 forum about running over something in the road that damaged my right side Cat and made my check engine light come on along with a lot of noise. The dealer checked it out and gave me a quote for $1700 to replace the cat. But they were also nice enough to tell me that the price is high because they don't actually fix anything but just replace with new parts. They suggested I could go down the street to Meineke and possibly have it repaired for less than half of that.

Meineke wanted $750 to install a reman Cat. I thought this was better that $1750 for sure but wanted to shop around. I wound up going to a local guy "Exhaust Wizard" who just does exhausts and he was able to cut out my bad cat, weld in a new one (OBDII compatable) and reseal my gasket btwn the manifold and the cat that was making all the noise for an amazing $192.00 out the door! And he was done in about 1hr. I've been driving for a week now and my car is quieter that it's been in a long time.

This guy is located in the ATL, GA area. Lilburn Georgia to be exact. There's no website for him so you'll have to look in the Yellow pages to find him if you're in my area.

I posted this just to inform people not to be scared by other sellers who tell you "you can't use a universal cat on an Audi!!!" which is what some were trying to tell me. BS! It works fine and I just went through emissions and I have a two year warranty on the cat and the work. Shop around! and it's great to have our own forum finally ;)

Still waiting for my cats to die so I have an excuse to upgrade ;)

I was thinking that I'd have to replace the whole exhaust system and get a cold air intake to make any real change. Even so, I've always been afraid to loose my low end tourq by reducing back end pressure. I like the low end around town and I don't track the car or WOT it to benefit from an exhaust upgrate. Are my assumptions correct?

Any upgrade is likely to reduce torque somewhat. That's the difference between N/A and F/I engines.

I have two cats that are now bad. The lame part about it is that being in California I'm forced to take the route of having the dealer replace both of them. I've searched hi and low for someone to help me out but this is the response I keep getting.
"No aftermarket converters are legal for use in California on OBD-2 vehicles (some 1994 nd 1995 and all 1996 and later models). Our converters are OBD2 compatible, and have been extensively tested with no problems. However, due to paperwork issues, (with all aftermarket converters) they are not legal in California."
- As quoted from RandomTech