hmm... i dunno what it is but the y-pipe sounds like as if its a 10 year old exhaust system... its vibrating... and makes a crappy noise... and it bangs around a lot... u can hear it thoughout the car... does anyone else have this problem? im gonna take it back to the place where i had it installed and have them affix it a little better... i hit the rev limiter with the pipe on and it just started banging at something... the stock one never did it... anyone else have this type of problem? what can be done to solve it? and how do i get rid of the annoying vibrating sound?? (sounds like my old stock exhaust from my 1990 maxima after about 80000 miles of use)

 

Take off the black cross member that is right after the cat. The pipe is banging against that. You can reattach it later with spacers or washers so you have more space. The noise will go away after you drive it for a little bit. If you can, disconnect the cat and y-pipe and make sure the joint is aligned properly. Also, shake that flex joint a bit. It will help. As you drive more and more, the flex joint will break in and the sounds will quietly disappear. Mine made a hiss/buzz around 2000-2500 rpm, but it has quieted down a lot.

 

when i first got it installed it was a horrible sound... but then i drove it 90 miles upstate... and it sounded better... and then i drove 90 miles back and it was ok... but then i parked the car for 2 days and now it sounds like ****... u mean the bar that is behind the cat? like in the order y-pipe, cat, bar right? it goes perpendicular to the exhaust pipes... is there a way to make the exhaust pipes tighter... like to affix them to something like with hangers or something? how many washers should i put in?
thanks

 

yup... its the black bar perpendicular to the piping right behind the cat. You can safely remove it for now. It's only there in case your exhaust pipes break. There are only two hangers that I know of: one before the flex joint and one after the cat. They should be there already. Try to get under the car and shake the flex joint/cat. It does help to get rid of the sound. Once the thing breaks in, it will get better. I have about 800 miles or so with the y-pipe in and it is still getting quieter.

 

hmmm... how am i gonna get under the car

 

actually, you can just lie down next to it and get at the bolts for that metal bar. Its 4 12 mm bolts on each side.

 

I haven't looked underneath yet, but if that crossmember is attached with four 12mm bolts per side it's doing much more than providing backup duty for the exhaust pipe hangers. 8 bolts almost 1/2" is way more bolting than an exhaust system would ever need.

It sounds much more like a floorpan stiffener or chassis brace to me, which means that it is a structural member. It's made as a bolt-on part specifically to provide easier installation and serviceability of the exhaust system.

If it is a stiffener (and I'm pretty sure that it is; I've seen them on other cars including my Malibu), then I wouldn't recommend leaving it off any longer than necessary or driving very hard without it. Maybe somebody with a shop manual will be able to provide further info - even the official name of this part may shed some light.

First thought on spacing it away for exhaust line clearance - use the minimum number of washers that will shut the noise up. Better yet would be to insert on each side a single spacer plate (minimum thickness again) drilled for all 4 bolts and painted for corrosion protection.

Norm

 

psing23 - check out this pic. This is what you may want to do (btw the o2 sensors are part of a cali/fed coversion):
http://images.cardomain.com/installs...107_6_full.jpg
You can get the washers at home depot, I used five on each bolt and also had to get longer bolts.

 

hmm..... interesting. In that case, I would get some washers to put some extra space and bolt the bar back on. I still have that cross member on my car since my y-pipe never hit it. I have an inch or so of clearance between the y-pipe and it. I will check the service manual to see what that bar actually is. Thanks for the insight

 

I guess I wasn't the only one with this problem... Take out the crossmember & the little brace behind it and you should be problem free... If it still persists, then the pipe wasn't installed correctly... It's probably misaligned to the cat. Losen the two nuts and bang it around alittle until you see that it's realigned. If that doesn't work, it's the fittment. Get a refund...
Hey Danny, where did you get your pipe installed and for how much?

 

hummmm, ya want to know something interesting??? That brace you are talking about ... I don't have it! No, I have checked and was wandering what you all were talking about in other post's but that pic cleared it up. And yes I know it's not there. You can see the ground strap there in the pic attached to that brace. Well I broke my ground strap when I was installing my brace and it would have been right there where that strap is placed and attached to the back portion of the cat.

I have a GXE if that makes a difference ... Any other 2000 GXE's out there w/o this brace?

 

Cali/Fed conversion, eh???

There are actually two cross-members that the exhaust might bang on due to the lack of flexability in the aftermarket Y-pipes flex sections. The larger one is just after the cat, as shown in sleepers pic. This one appears to serve some structural purpose. The second one is a tiny little $hit located just after the resonator. It is very flimsy and appears to be there just to support the exhaust if needed. I dropped both of mine, but still have some banging if I go over rough pavement while the car is floored. If you use a lot of washers to drop these brackets, you will need longer bolts too. As far as the vibrating sound goes, you could get some header wrap from your local performance parts store and wrap up the flex section. That should take the bite off.

 

This is exactly what I had to take off as well. I will do the extended bolt trick once I find longer bolts with the exact same thread.





I've had my Y on for about 800miles as well and my car is very quiet with just a Stillen intake and stock exhaust. But when I hit WOT it opens that bad boy up.

 

Initial D where u got it...

 

wierd stuff is it only present on the SE's then for more structural rigidity? Anyone else with a GXE check?

 

I have it, I think he was just looking at the wrong spot.

 

That's where I got mine done... Kekeke
I'm plannin on going back sometime this week to get my exhaust hangers tightened.

 

ye i had my car up on a lift today since i lost my idler pulley on the highway... so while it was up i removed the bar thats behind the resonator... the one with the single bolts on each side... not the one with the 4 bolts on each side... my car sounds good now too... doesnt sound like a truck anymore so now i kno it was cause of the belt or the loose pulley... im gonna try to install the CAI tomorow myself... ill see how it comes out... anything i should keep in mind while doing it? gimme some tips... thanks
-danny

 

how did you lose the idler pulley? Was it because of the UDP install? I get my UDP this week.... got any tips for the install? I may take it to a shop nearby if I don't have the time to do the install myself, but I may just end up doing it....

 

dude, ya wanna drive down to KY and show me where it is since you know the spot so well? I can take a pic if you want but its not there! I even went back out and looked a second time with that picture in mind. If you go out and look there is only 1 ground strap attached the exhaust system anywhere near the cat, and if you read my first post you would see that I specifically mentioned that.

 

On mine, the brace is behind the main cat. It is the same one that is pictured in this thread. There is a ground wire attached to one of the bolts. So maybe you are missing it... Do you see the holes for it? The brace has 8 bolts, 4 on each side.

 

Yes there are bolts in there holding the ground strap and filling the holes but there is no brace And yes its behind the main cat. (only cat on the Fed spec.).

 

Hey Danny..There aren't any major precautions to take but just keep these two things in mind.
Becareful with the O2 sensor when installing the CAI... If it's not plugged in correctly, it'll burn out and you'll end up getting the Check Engine light.
Be extremely careful when handling the 4 screws for the MAF.. It's plastic and very delicate.
I broke 2 screwholes off the MAF due to carelessness.. It didn't cause any malfunctions or anything but it's just the fact that they're broken that bothers me... If it breaks in a certain way, the MAF might leak and you'll get the check engine light again.
Oh yeah.. Good luck with the drilling...

-Peace-

 

The O2 sensor you mentioned, I believe is actually the intake temperature sensor. There's a place for it to plug into the CAI tube so that shouldn't be a problem. Also, I'm definitely not saying don't be careful wih the MAF, but the worst thing that would happen if you developed a leak there would be to let dirty air into the intake, not a check engine light.

Oh, and by the way, have fun cutting out the hole under the battery tray!!!

 

Also, I'm definitely not saying don't be careful wih the MAF, but the worst thing that would happen if you developed a leak there would be to let dirty air into the intake, not a check engine light.

I know this from experience.. When I first installed my Stillen Hi-flow, I didn't reinstall the MAF tube correctly and air was leaking in. My car was stalling like a ****. I can see the rpm jump up and down and later I got the check engine light... I also have a friend that broke one of the screwholes on the MAF and air was leaking in.. His check engine light came on after 3 days and when he took it to the dealer for warranty, they told him that the MAF sensor burned out and he couldn't get it warrantied(spelling?) b/c of his custom intake.. Sucks!!!
I'm not saying that you're completely wrong, but let me just point out that it's not the worst that can happen..

 

well another weekend went by and i didnt have a chance to install it... i wanted to today but they said it might rain so i didnt want to take the chance of taking everything apart and then getting stuck under the rain... so i guess maybe we could hook up again during this week? lemme kno
thanks a lot!!


danny

 

I can see how a malfunctioning MAF could cause a check engine light, which is possibly what happened to your buddy. Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I sure don't see how a leak on the outside of the MAF could generate a check engine light. Air should still be travelling in a laminar flow even if the leak is that close to the MAF inlet. You hadn't done anything silly like remove your "honeycomb" insert in your MAF did you?

 

sorry Desert Pearl - I should have given you credit when I mentioned my Cali/Fed conversion! (I don't know about you but I'm very happy with the results and I do think it's worth it. I just think driveability is so much better than with the precat on. )

As for that second little crossmember, I just removed mine altogether.

 

Don't assume that I would do something silly like that.
Perhaps you're right in a way.. Maybe some ppl might end up making the same mistake I did and never end up with that problem... I never said you are completely wrong... But then again, I have seen this happen twice...Unless I was hallucinating, I saw the orange light with the words Check Engine appear b4 my eyes.
So we disagree.. Let's just leave it at that b4 this starts leading elsewhere...

 

My only reason for asking about the MAF honeycomb was that I have read many recent posts about people removing that, which I think is a no-no. I'm not debating the fact that you got a check engine light, but merely trying to understand it.

 

Funny, I have 2k SE, and I dotn' have that brace either..WTH is going on????

Anyone?

 

Help, guys, does any SE guys who don't have that brace also?

 

could it be a difference between having fed spec and cali spec emissions? To those that don't have the brace: what type of emissions do you have?

 

It's probably just ANOTHER part Nissan forgot to put on, kinda like the gas-filler-tube dust shield on 2k1.

 

I have fed emission...anyone with 2k Fed emission has the brace under their car?