I still get banging on my y-pipe to the brace everytime I hit hard on the gas. I did put washers on it and it helped until I swapped out my catback. Now it's hitting again. Can I just remove that bracket and then just srew in that ground wire. Is the bracket required???

 

Brace under the y pipe? Or further back towards the catback? I had to remove mine and bend it a bit last weekend because I was getting the same noise. It is really easy to take off.

I can't see what purpose it serves either. It would only come in handy if the weld breaks on the B pipe.

 

you can remove it.... many have done the same thing

 

i took mine off and just undid a nearby bolt and put the ground to that.

 

speaking of that, does it matter if the ground wire is connected?

 

i asked a local mechanic if it made a difference. he said that it didnt but if you asked the engineers who designed the car, they would say that it does. i just connected because it took 2 secs.

 

Well if you consider how sturdy the brace is and the fact that it's anchored by 8 fairly substantial bolts, it's pretty evident that the brace does have a structural function (chassis rigidity?). Otherwise Nissan would have made it somewhat similar to the much smaller brace (held by two bolts) further back under the B-pipe. There's no reason to have such a hefty brace if its' only purpose is to hold up the exhaust piping in case it somehow becomes unattached. In other words Nissan wouldn't spend the extra cash for this if it wasn't deemed necessary. I would just get longer bolts and more washers and keep the brace on.

 

Hmm.. but if you make it too long wouldn't it hit like if I went over a speed but since the bracket will be lower??

 

Can you say weight reduction? My braces and trailer hitches are comming off tomarrow, muhahaha!

 

It definitely ways a lil heavy.. But the structural integrity does make sense. But then again a lot of people have removed it with no problems???

 

My FSTB and RSB will take care of that problem.

 

I guess I can say the same.. fst, fstb, and rsb will make up for it too... I'm gonna take mines off tomorrow.. Lemme know if you feel any difference..

 

I removed the braces today and I feel a noticable difference. My steering response is now sloppy, it feels like my car did before my RSB. I'm going to look into the WSP subframe conectors now, stage 1 and 2. BTW there is no more nasty banging noises during hard launches and 1-2 shifts. The braces probably weigh about 3-4 lb's combined.

 

I was thinking hard about removing the brace but then thought of an easier solution. I had my muffler shop just heat the pipe up and bend it up right before the flex part. Now the pipe above the brace is more leveled and raised higher.

 

It might not be a bad idea to hang the bpipe. I think, that I will have the local exhuast shop hang it. By doing this it will probably take pressure off the flex section too.