[Porsche_monkey]

I have a 97 Mercedes E420 with under 80,000 miles. Nice car, I've had it about one year with no problems. I like and I'm going to keep it a few more years.

For about a month it has run rough and the 'check engine' light has been coming on. Last week it started to misfire (lean) and it ended up needing a new intake gasket which I thought was the end of the problems.

After that repair it still ran poorly and now the mechanic tells me the right hand cat is plugged.

So I've likely spent $750 on the intake manifold, now a factory cat is $1,250 plus labor.

Option1 would be knocking out the contents of the cat as a 'temporary fix', although he claims the OBDII will turn on the check engine light with one cat missing. I'm not convinced this is true. And I have 18 months before my next emmissions test, although I suspect this car would pass with one cat.

Option 2 is an aftermarket cat, which he says is about $400 cheaper, but he says they sound like crap compared to OEM.

Option 3 is to either buy a $100 cat and adapt it to fit the car myself, using the ends off the old cat, or take it to a cheapy muffler shop and get them to do the same thing. I'm guessing I could do this for between $100 and $250 total. Again, it may not sound like it used to.

My inclination is to knock out the cat and drive it. If it has too many OBD codes I'll go on to option 3.

I feel a bit bad having the mechanic diagnose the problem but not having him fix it, although he did do the intake gasket work. Another $1,500 in parts and labor seems excessive to me, hte car is only worth about $12,000.

Anyone have any brilliant ideas? Is there another option I should consider?