I always come to the forum for advice, knowing enough about my 95 SE but never having any time to fix it myself. Hard to find a good mechanic in my part of NJ and for serious repairs I take it to a mechanic who I have been dealing with for the last 7 years. They are OK but I would not let them do my exhaust and they were reluctant to do it too. My exhaust was falling apart and when I went to a Nissan dealer, the guy over there said it will cost a fortune if they did it, he suggested Midas or Mieneke. Mieneke first approach was rude so did not go there. Took it to Midas and ended up having to replace the front tube assembly and 3 way catalyst. Had to replace the catalyst because the flange could not be saved. I checked with the tech at Midas and I could not get around it. These guys did not try to sell me everything under the sun and focused on the exhaust. It cost me over $1K to do the job. I am not looking for criticism I am just looking if I got ripped off or is this price within reason based on what I replaced.

 

Sounds like the Y pipe with the two cats and the main cat got replaced?

At rockauto prices, those two items would run around $5-600 plus shipping.
Did they mention what brand they used?

 

Correct. All cats were replaced. I believe they used Walker brand.

 

Would've saved yourself alot if you got an aftermarket y pipe with no pre-cats. I would've felt ripped off.

 

Did they reuse the original O2 sensors?

 

did they use lube????

 

lol,did they use lube. Thats expensive

 

thats about what it would be at my work for a complete exhaust on a 4th gen

even my Silverado the exhaust broke off of the manifolds, didnt do it at work and took it to an exhaust shop and parts were $2000 and labour $500. the cats alone were over $1000

 

Using walker parts, its around $450-500 in parts, not counting gaskets, broken bolts, or O2 sensors. If you had the whole exhaust done, I would say that's about right, but just for the front half (that usually lasts longer then the back half, at least in the rust belt) it's a little high.
Then again, exhaust work can be a big dirty pain in the ***. Doing it in winter makes it worse. Also, it sounded like you weren't planning on replacing everything that you did when you drove it there. Kind of hard to shop around once the cars all torn apart up on the lift.

I would have budgeted $7-800 or so given the cost of parts. Assuming not to much starts breaking off or has to be cut off, if so expect to add a couple Benjamins for the labor.

 

Thanks for the comments. They re-used the O2 sensors and I insisted on that. The front cat was shot. Once it was laid on the garage floor it almost fell apart. The mid cat was in good shape. They did try to get a universal mid cat but they could not find one to work with the '95. I ended up having to shell out more for a factory replacement. All said and and done, I know going to a chain like Midas was going to cost me more but I could not spend any more time looking around for a good mechanic to do the job. The Midas guys were straight on, the manager (who used to run his own shop) knew what he was doing and the tech never tried to BS me. The dealer wanted to charge me close to $3K to do the exhaust system.

 

1
$120 tube kit from MES

 

you could've done it so much cheaper had you pieced it together and not waited for it to rust apart. warpspeed y, 225.00, test pipe, 40.00, cattback 2-300.00 and labor should've been no more than 200.00. i did my y-pipe first, then my cattback, and my cat was done in 2013 and is falling apart cause it was a cheap pos. point is, maintenance is key here. especially when you live in cold weather states that salt.

 

That sounds about rite for what was replaced. Cost me 600 for the main cat and B pipe, all Walker, installed.