Hi,

I recently purchased a 02 Max with a 6-spd. The car shifts great and is much more powerful then my 99 Auto Max. Anyway, the 02 Max has (from previous owner) a Jet ECU upgrade, Greedy cat back, and a Stillen air intake. The car is a little too loud for long trips which I find extremly annoying. I guess I'm getting old. The items mentioned were installed together and the ECU was optimized for the new parts. I'm thinking of putting on a stock muffler and perhaps removing the Stillen intake. Would removing just the muffler solve my problem or atleast tame the growl to acceptable levels? Would the stock muffler give me more power at lower speeds? Will my ECU need to be updated? Are there better mufflers then the stock but as quiet?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

Yes, re-installing the stock muffler (or the Frankencar muffler) would greatly reduce the exhaust noise (the Greddy muffler is fairly loud and droney). The 5th gen maxima stock muffler is actually a very good free-flowing muffler, and installing it will result in little to NO loss of power. On our cars, the muffler "upgrades" are really just for looks and for sound. Removing the intake and re-installing the stock air box would further reduce the noise from the engine bay.

Other ways to reduce noise:
- get some spray undercoat (rubberized) and spray the insides of the wheel wells
- get dynamat and put it inside the doors and under the carpeting
- get quieter tires (Toyo Proxes 4 are a nice quiet all-season performance tire).

 

Shamless plug.......

 

how is it a shameless plug? I don't work for frankencar (nor do I have their muffler - mine is stock)....I'm just telling him that it's the quietest aftermarket muffler available for the maxima.....

edit: maybe if I pimp Frankencar enough, they'll "sponsor" me and give me a free rear section hey, worth a try, right?

 

notice the smilie man, just playing with you

 

yeah I know...notice the smiley at the end of mine. Don't want the newbies to think that I'm working for them though

 

The cheapest OEM muffler for the Max is about 200.00-that I can find. The Frankencar sells a catback system for a few hundred. Am I better of just buying a replacement muffler from a shop and letting them install it?

Also, will the extra back pressure give me more torque at the line?


Thanks again

 

the muffler will have little to no effect on torque...the backpressure is not created by the muffler. I suggest hitting up a junkyard or going to the F/S forum here - plenty of people are selling their stock mufflers for cheap.

 

irish,

A junkyard is a great idea. However, I have one more question. Is there any method for tuning the exhaust I have to make it more tame? Perhaps reducing the outlet size some how or putting something inside the outlet tube-would this have little effect?

 

Try the muffler first. That will have the biggest effect. I'm running with an intake, Y-pipe and cat back with stock muffler. The exhaust is dead quiet at cruise. No droning or anything. I do hear the intake when I dip into the throttle but even that isn't an annoying sound. Cruising on the highway I don't hear anything. In fact, even at higher revs it's quiet as long as I'm not accelerating.

 

Agree with what derek said.

check with vsamoylov, he always seems to have alot of OEM parts around...think he works at a yard or something....

see this thread:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=402467

 

DO jet chips even do anything for are cars...arnt they a joke?

 

I went under my car today and found a huge crack in the pipe from the cat back to the muffler. The pipe is rotted through in several spots. So it wasn't totally the muffler. I'd like some advice.

The Greedy muffler is stainless but the weld from the rotted pipe into the muffler is pretty corroded. Not all the way through but the metal is flaking. I don't think that it would hold a weld.

I was thinking of just getting a new pipe to the muffler and see how I like the Greedy as it was inteded to be used. Or should I scrap the Greedy and buy a Frankencar muffler or maybe go to a stock. I like a low growl that isn't heard when you are in 6th gear and cruising at 75 MPH? Thanks again in advance you guys are great.

 

That crack will definately make the car sound bad. I'd take it to an exhaust shop and see if they can patch it back together. They should be able to replace the rotted sections with new pipe. They would have to see the muffler to see if it can be salvaged. You'd be surprised to see what some of those guys can do.

Once the leaks are fixed you'll be able to hear what it really sounds like. Any muffler will sound bad with leaks in the exhaust.

 

The Greddy (not Greedy) will drone up til 2500 rpms regardless, I had one myself...

If you wanna get rid of the Greddy, its unlikely that any other pre-fabbed b-pipes will fit... neither will a Frankencar rear section fit with the Greddy b-pipe... you'd have to get another cat-back altogether, or get custom piping. One thing you could try is to get a custom b-pipe with a bigger resonator, since the Greddy resonator is tiny.

 

JET chips do nothing anyways... it doesn't matter...

 

Hi,

Just got back from the muffler shop. My exhaust system is hurting. For 100.00 I got the guy to replace the pipe from the B-Pipe to the muffler. This is a bandaid but he thinks I may be good for 2 years. The cat is stainless but the bracket is steel and is rusting. The resonator has heavy rust and so does the weld into the Greddy muffler. Anyway, the Greddy muffler sounds great and I'm glad I didn't ditch it. When I have the bucks I'll change the entire exhaust system. High flow cat, etc.

 

Should've just got headers and called it a day.