You may not have smog tests yet in your area but why purposely eliminate those things that help?  The sensor is the O2 sensor which gives feedback to the ECU as to the air/fuel mixture and helps the ECU keep the mixture properly balanced.
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Tom Young                      tomyoung1@home.com
Lafayette, CA 94549        '81 Vanagon
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ken Hartz 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2001 10:36 AM
  Subject: Sensor in CAT question ??

  Hello list, 
  Am in the midst of installing a new muffler, tail pipe, and also the cat 
  eliminator pipe on my 89 Wolfsburg.  What a hassle!!  Anyway, I had hoped to 
  remove the CAT (we don't have sniff tests here yet) and save it for a rainy 
  day ...  However, I notice there is a sensor screwed into the upstream side 
  of the CAT.  Installing the bypass pipe will mean removing/eliminating this 
  sensor.  Any problems with removing/bypassing this sensor or should I save 
  the bypass pipe for a rainy day ... and leave the CAT alone? 
  TIA 
  Ken Hartz 

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