ok a little while ago i ordered my budget y pipe and my carsound cat from budget exhaust and during install i noticed the hole for the o2 sensor on the cat was on the wrong side, i decided to splice the wires for the o2 sensor and use the other hole since i made up my mind that i was not waiting any longer to drive a maxima with a y pipe...now the problem is that the sensor hang down to low and yesterday morning when i backed outa my drive way for work i broke the sensor off after hiting some packed snow at the end of the drive way

has anyone else had this problem and is the only way around it buying a new cat? also does anyone know how much cats are from the dealer and if the come with the brackets that supost the cat with the rubber hangers

 

Wow. That sux. Don't get an OEM cat - it will cost you an arm, a leg, & your left nut. It sounds to me like you may have been shipped the wrong carsound cat from your vendor. First, I'd try to sort this out with whomever shipped you the cat. Verify the correct location for the O2 sensor for your application & see if they can assist you.

Others on these forums have used the Carsound cats & without reporting this problem, so that's why I'm thinkin' - wrong cat.

If you can't remedy it that way, check into the Random Technology Hi-flow cat, another popular aftermarket option for our cars.

Definite bummer.

 

are you sure that you installed it correctly?

 

A new Cat from Nissan will cost you about $500-600. Way overpriced.

Call up Budget and see if they can send you the correct Cat for your car and then get a new O2 sensor.

 

I got my Carsound from WSP and it had two possible positions for the o2 sensor but one was blocked with a welded plug. Just make sure you are installing the cat with the o2 sensor hole toward the back of the car right before the B-pipe. The rear o2 sensor is supposed to be positioned AFTER the cat.

 

uhh, did u install it the right way? I mean, its not gonna make a difference if the cat is facing one way or the other....

 

yes it is install right, we matched spun it around and matched it up and there was really only one posible way to put it on the car, the reason i didnt send it back was cuz i need to put the car back together and had no other option, i dunno if they would take it back after it being on the car for about 1000 miles...it was fine till it started snowing and plus if i lower it im sure its gonna present a problem...i'll probably just let the sensor hang for now, suck it up and go buy an rt cat from some where local

 

Yes, I am sure I installed it correctly. First, I looked at the position of the sensor in the OE cat before I took anything apart, and second, I read up on it in the manual.

Here is a direct quote from the Haynes manual, section 6-12, paragraph 2;

The downstream oxygen sensor in the exhaust system has no effect on air/fuel ratio. This sensor is identical to the upstream sensor and operates in the same way. The PCM (ECU) uses the downstream signal, however, for the catalyst monitor system. A downstream oxygen sensor will produce a slower fluctuating voltage signal that reflects the lower oxygen content in the post catalyst exhaust.

You are right about it not making a difference which direction the exhaust flows through the catalyst, but it does matter to the ECU where the sensor is . Are you sure you installed yours correctly?

I did the install about six months ago along with a WSP ss Y-pipe and B-pipe and have had no problems (except for some vibrations which I fixed) or codes since.

I'm not busting on you just trying to give you some options besides cutting into the wiring. Flipping the cat around is easy and free. Replacing the sensor is a PITA and is costly.

 

Sorry Jamsan. This was directed at DanIAm and I hope it helps...

 

Sorry Jamsan. This was directed at DanIAm and I hope it helps...what is with the server anyway???

 

sooo ok after that confusion i looked in my trusty manual lol and saw that it is the wrong cat, the sensor should be angled up better so im probably going to get another o2 sensor and buy the cat loaclly so i can make sure its the right one this time...my only other question is, how will not having this sensor effect the car, the top of it snapped so the hole is still plugged so theres no exhasut leak but will this have any effect on the car since i just bought red clear tails off ebay and am still paying off the bill for a new transmision after blowing my other one, i really cant afford the parts right away

 

sorry to hear the bad news. A few months back I had a similar problem. I reveived a Carsound cat and it had the O2 sensor in the wrong place. Mine, forced the sensor up towards the floorboard tunnel. Yes, it was installed properly. It used to hit that tunnel and cause me worry, not to mention throwing the rest of the exhaust out of alignment. After many repeated attempts w/ the vendor I finally got a customized new carsound cat w/ the sensor in the right spot. Is your car a 95/96? To better explain where my sensor should have been, imagine you're looking into the cat from the b pipe side and it represents a clock, with the dead top being 12 and the dead bottom 6. My sensor came out of the rear of the cat at rougly 7:30 and was on the same plane as the rest of the exhaust. Is that where yours was? The problematic cat I had located the sensor at 10:30. HOpe this makes some sense. I don't have any pics to explain.

 

i know exactly what your talking about, it was either flip the cat over and have the sensor point up like you did or flip the cat around, extend the wires for the o2 sensor and have it point down like i did, i looked at a stock one last night since my stock y pipe and cat got tossed and its supose to be angled almost straight back on the bottom kinda...hard to explain but im going to look into other cats since i need to buy the hangers that suport the cat, the old ones rusted off. I get a very noticeable buzz from the y pipe but i think its mostly because its not suported by anything...good to know im not the only one that noticed a problem. now i look at it this way, even if i have to buy a new o2 sensor and a dif. aftermarket cat i'll stil have paid less then a cat from the dealer

 

I would get one of the cheapest O2 sensors I could find since the rear one is primarily for diagnostics. If you can't find a reasonably cheap one then I would check to see if all three O2 sensors on our car are the same. If they are, I would use the new one on one of the banks of cylinders and use the older one for the rear. Just my .02 Btw, I decided not to extend my wires, they would've had to cross the exhaust somehow to get to the other side. Good luck.