Ok, so im having a real hard time taking out the old y. I got the front flange loosened, but the rear i can only see two bolts. There some sort of sheild in the way, it has one bolt on it(9mm) but its stripped. Try hacking it, prying it, tried it all.

As for the o2 sensors, well i have neither a 22mm open end nor a o2 tool. Im going to try a sae open end wrench but i cant do anything till i get at those bolts.

 

if its stripped, then your screwed i would say. i don't know how else you could reach up there and remove it, cut it whatever...

as for the o2, buy the o2 socket, it will save time and stripping

 

Its not the flange bolt thats stripped, its this little bolt on the underside of the stock y. Di you have to remove any sort of gravel gaurd to get at the middle section? I can clearly see 2 bolts, but the one closest to the driver side is hidden from view.

 

That's not a gravel guard. The only guards there are the heat shields...and those only need to be removed when doing a header install. Something ain't right. Good luck though man.

 

There are no shields to remove to access the rear flange. One or two of the bolts require a u-joint. As for that bolt on the bottom, its not a 9, its either an 8 or a 10, if it is really a 9 then someone put the wrong bolt in there.

 

H/o fellas, digi cam to the rescue. Gimme a few minutes, hang tight, ima take a picture or 2 or 3. And Vlasic, can you visually see all 3 from underneath, or do i just feal around for the third. i cant see the one on the drivers side.

 

IIRC you can see all three from underneath, if not then reach up and feel it as long as your car isnt hot still. Have you read the how-to because it helps out A LOT! I used it to gather all the stuff i needed before my car went onto the ramps.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=430498

Also you might need help with the y-pipe to cat bolts, there are two and depending on mileage and whatnot they might be rusted to the point where you need to get them heated off or drilled out, I just payed 30 bucks to get them removed and replaced, I'd recommend the same thing.

 

Of those 3 years one is kind of hard to see but it is visible.

Also, one other thing about that small one on the bottom; are you installing an aftermarket ypipe? If so do what ever you can to just tear that thing out, the aftermarket ypipes do not use that bracket.

 

Im doing a new cat so cant i just take of the cat an y as one piece? I got to the third bolt, had to jack the car up more but i got it. The fronts are loose but not out yet. I also loosened the little bracket to the tranny. I heard there a hanger holding the y and cat, but i have no idea how to take it off, im assuming the y wont come off if the hangers still on. WSP sent a new hanger but it doesnt look like anything currently under the car.

 

If your just replacing the cat why are you taking off the ypipe?

 

you can always pick a drill bit slightly smaller than the bolt diameter and just drill through it to remove the bolt.

 

No im doing both. Im at breaking point, i'll try and get further in the morning but i think its going to get done at a shop. I dont have the necessary tools, and people make it seem so easy when its not. This guys supposed to weld on my muffler for like $100 so he might be able to do the rest for another $100 or so. maybe its worth it.

 

It's easy in theory. The problem is that rust ruins everything, so without the rust if you followed the write-up that I posted earlier its easy. However it does take time to pull at the bolts and to do it right so you don't mess something up.

Try remove the ypipe to cat bolts and cat to s pipe bolts first so you can get the hard ones out of the way, then work on the manifold to ypipe bolts because they'll be rust free, just tight. So I recommend you use a breaker bar to help with them.

If you do feel like quitting just go to a shop and have them remove and replace the bolts connected to either side of the cat because they'll be the hardest to remove out of all of them.

 

I just had so much fun driving to the shop. I had all 6 flange bolts off so there was alot of exhaust leakage and man was it loud. Lots of fun. Not quite the tone i want, it was more like loud farts, but hopefully the new magnaflow will be similarly loud, it was just so cool. When i hit 3k rpms it was more like that civic sound. I'll post sound clips of the Wsp y, hi flow cat, magnaflow race series tommorow once he finishes the install. Wasnt too bad at 200 for everything installed, pretty honest guy.

 

For some reason i tried a 12, 13 and 14mm sockets and none fit those bolts. 14 was too big, the others to small. I called the shop to ask about cutting the bolts and he wanted like 40 bux, so i asked about doing the whole install top to bottom and he wanted 180, for that money im fine with it. Saves me a days work and i dont have to take off work without a car. I would probably cost me more money to take a day off work. He was cool though, he threw in the fellow motorcyclist discount( i have no idea WTH that means).

 

I guess he saw your predicament and took pity on you.

 

Damn, my fabricator has had the car for two days and now he tells me the resonator was rotted through. So he welded in a straight peice of tubing to the b-pipe. Im actually really pissed because this setup was going to be loud to begin with, now its simply not going to be legal. Not to mention im sure i'll sound like a civic until the new resonator comes in. Ahh, gotta love it when people touch without asking!!

 

I had the idiots at Menieke to loosen the nuts i couldnt get to when I was doing my Y-pipe for like 20 bucks. It was worth it, but dont go there for anything else.

 

Even better why not get a whole new exhuast

 

Got the car back earlier today, havent had time to put up a clip but im really pissed now. Without the resonator it sounds horrible, i would've been better stock, its basically like a civic....but louder. And to make matters worse every-time i hit even a small bump it clanks all over the place. And the muffler was put on crooked. The tip is like 2" left of the cutout on the bumper. So im going back tommorow to have him fix the placement and hopefully clankiness but he claims everything was fastened down tight and hanger are tight so its just the way the new exhaust is. So...what would cause there to be a clank when i start the car and also anytime i hit a bump?

 

its clanking because some part on the exhaust is physically hitting the bottom of your car or a heat shield, most likely in your b-pipe/resonator section. just go under your car and move the exhaust around with your hands (when its cool ofcourse) and see where its loose and hitting.

to stop it from clanking you can buy a muffler repair kit, the kind that uses the padded insulation wrap and wrap that around whatever parts bang and then use some metal straps to hold it in place and prevent it from bouncing around. its sorta what i did, sorta getto but hey, no one sees it.

you should probly wait til you get your resonator tho before you do anything otherwise you might be doing everything twice

heres mine: (before i did this my exhaust sagged about a inch lower and would bounce around and hit the heat shields)

 

I feel your pain man, I have to have the y pipe to cat bolts torched off, and it took my friend and I hours to break the bolts off the y pipe, took like 15 minutes to put the new one it...

Mine is also louder than **** currently, but i'm having a shop do a custom bat back on it tomorrow and that should fix it GL on yours and posts clips when its done...

 

Thanks for the info black_maxed95, it makes sense now, its gotta be the heatshield, even WSP says it might need to be removed in there install instructions. But you know what, im still taking it back to them to do some sort of bracket because when your payed for a job you do it in whole and test out the vehicle after. He clearly threw it all together and never test the car.

 

true, you should have them fix it since the are the ones that did the job. i ghetto rigged it because it sagged after i put in a budget y pipe myself.

 

I say have him fix it and ask him if he'll install a resonater too because its messed up that he didn't talk to you before he did stuff. So have him fix it all.

Also about the rattling, do go under and figure out where its hitting, you might need new OEM hangers or something like that, also the ypipe-cat hanger might be rusted through.

 

He wont replace the resonator, he was wrong for taking it out but im honestly not that pissed about it. It really doesnt get too buzzy till about 2500 rpms, and i shift around there.

The ypipe-cat hanger was replaced, WSP sent a new one. And muffler hanger were all replaced(total of 3 new ones), so im thinking its the bpipe hitting the body.