Catalytic Converter HELP!

I have a 95 Jetta. My car runs great except for a rattling noise when it is sitting idle. I took it to a dealership to see what it was. He said it was probably the catalytic converter. He also said it could cost $1500 to $3500 for a new one!! I paid $1600 for the whole car! All it does is rattle.. but its annoying. is there a way to fix this without spending tons of money? Any ideas? Thanks!

Thats a ridiculous price for a '95. Do a Google search on "VW Catalytic" & you can find a host of economical sources. Or just take it to a local muffler shop for a "universal" cat for about $175 installed.

I have several exhaust mods on my 97 jetta gt.. the only thing left stock is the cat!!! the dealership told me the same price.. i work at a shop and dop all the work on my car, with that said the guy told me it would cost 1300.00 and thats with my shop discount!!! I found a BOSAL dealer that had them for 180.00! and thats the OE style.. I have a bosal header that works AWSOMe and a magna flow custom exhaust.. I had to cut the cat out to install my header properly.. When I looked inside it was actually clean.. I have 107,00 miles..


Check the heatshield!!!! mine game me ALOT of troublr from the cat shield in ft of the firewall all the way back to yhe tail pipe near the Gas tank!

I agree that it is probably the heat shield. If the cat was bad you would probably get a code.

I know this is going to sound dumb and make you guys laugh reall Really hard, where do you get a code?

I don't think a '95 would set any check engine codes for a cat problem, but a '96 would. At least with a generic scanner, a VAG scanner might be able to pick up the problem on a pre OBD-II car. Thus the only time you would get a code for a cat would be when using a diagnostic scanner.