Can’t figure out why your check engine light is on?
Owners of high-end automobiles have a reason to be worried as the mechanics they entrust their cars with are now targeting valuable rare metals found in vehicle exhaust systems that have been linked to making explosives.
Vehicle engine management systems are configured to work with an emission system designed with a catalytic converter (CAT). Catalytic converters use inbuilt precious metals to chemically break down harmful gases and emission particles.
The cartel network involves mechanics, car dealers, and senior powerful people and involves the extraction of these precious metals and replacing them with steel wool.
Replacing this with steel wire as a catalytic converter will affect the car’s emission cleaning system and efficiency, hence the engine fault light.
The highly valuable precious metals include platinum, palladium, rhodium, or nickel which trap and chemically break down (oxidise) toxic gases such as carbon monoxide (CO2) and Nitrogen Oxide (NOX), reducing them to less harmful levels.
Those involved in these kinds of thefts are targeting the high-end vehicles left at garages. In Nairobi, four-wheel-drive vehicles like the Toyota Landcruisers and Mitsubishi Pajeros are easy to target due to their road clearance.
The racket is not only exposing innocent people to dangerous cancerous fumes but also providing criminals with easy access to these precious metals that can be used to build explosives.
Here is a case in point.
11:37 Whoever owns this car is about to be messed with.Something is being removed under the exhaust pipe and replaced with steel wool…I hear its roughly 6kgs and is sold in the black mkt for 25k!the car is in dagoreti corner now! pic.twitter.com/ermWyHHKJL via @linmacx
— Ma3Route (@Ma3Route) September 16, 2020
