Anyone know what this is?

[framey]

Hi, had the car up on the ramps today, and took a photo of this.
It  a small bore pipe that goes into the Cat. The hole it left after being knocked off has a screw in it.

My questions are....
What is it?
What does it do?
How does it\'s removal effect the engine?

I\'m guessing that when you remove the cat, it\'s redundant?
Cheers

ps sorry about the crappy picture

[moakesr]

Nasty bodge putting a screw into the cat.

It\'s the air injection pipe from the air pump, it pumps air into the cat to help the reaction.  Without it you will find it hard to pass MOT emissions and it will eventually kill the cat.

If you are planning to remove the cat, then no problem.

Richard

[Fish]

OK the pipe that goes in to the centre section of the exhaust, can be blocked off once you loose the cat(s).

It comes from the air pump, next to the alternator. If you are blocking this off, you can remove the air pump without problem.

Fish

[framey]

Oh dear!
This must of been like this since I got the car.

Looks like I\'ll be going down the cat replacement  pipe path sooner rather than later.

Thanks guys.