so the second flex pipe that was installed on my Warp speed Y went out on me again after the exhaust shop told me the one they have was better than the Vibrant pictured below and that it only went bad because my mounts were bad. they refused to install the vibrant flex that I had on me that day. I believe that was back in October. I had installed Nisformance upper mounts and E.S. lowers a week of 2 after having the flex pipe put in which I believe was in early November. a few days ago I parked my car for a few hours and when I got back in to crank it up I heard the noise and knew it went out again.

this morning I found a different exhaust shop and they told me the Vibrant flex that I had was cheap and no good but they went ahead and installed it anyway, $90 to install..





here's what's left of the old flex pipe that the other shop told me was the same internally as the Vibrant flex but has braided wiring over it and is better, they lied..

 

That looks like my first Warpspeed Y flex. I got 7 years out of it. Makes me wonder how long it had been collapsed because power was down for some time. https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...literally.html My exhaust is nearly all original on my 99. It's laughable how the factory parts can last decades but aftermarket stuff is a complete crap shoot.

 

I'm going through flex pipe issues right now as well. I ordered OBX headers back in 2013 or so, and like an idiot, I threw away my perfect condition OEM exhaust. Didn't have the space to store it. Well, the OBX headers had tons of issues, so I abandoned them straight away and bought a used OEM set of exhaust manifolds and y-pipe from ebay that were clearly from a northern car. Lots of corrosion. I recently bought a new aftermarket y-pipe since that used y-pipe had heat shields flapping about and the braided part of the flex pipe was separated. The flex pipe on the new y-pipe is the same as the OBX headers...leaks and sounds like a fart can above 3k RPM. So now I'm trying to track down a good quality flex pipe to use on my OEM y-pipe....sigh. The struggle with owning older cars without OEM parts available....

 

looking back through threads that I started, my Warpspeed Y along with 4th gen federal exhaust manifolds were installed on 9/3/21 and on 3/23/22 the flex pipe that came with it failed.

 

how is this possible with you in Maine? do you not drive it much in the winters? Do you guys use Brine up there? Brine is the nastiest road treatments out there. i went through two warpspeeds 3 years each. this time I had a Meineke put in a flex section. well see how long that lasts. I did the flex right around the same time as the OP.
yea man that sounds tuff, what about walker pipes and stuff? i always thought they were decent aftermarket pipes.
yea went thru 2 warpspeed y-pipes almost 3 years to the date for each, and it was only the flex pipe failing each time. hopefully the meineke shop's flex pipe holds up at least 2 years lol, if not I need to start learning welding.

 

I'm guessing short flex pipes don't last as long due to less flexing surface.

the OEM flex pipe was a lot longer from what I remember, here's a random pic of OEM Y and aftermarket Y...

 

There are different methods used to treat the roads; salt, sand & salt, salt brine, and liquid chloride. The winter sand I get from the town rusted my shovel instantly just scooping the stuff into a bucket. It's rough on cars for sure. I drove my 1998 Maxima year round from 2004-2012. It was a rust bucket back then so I parked it after getting my 2007 Frontier in 2012 which is pretty rusty now too and not currently inspected. Some how my 1999 Maxima is relatively clean. I don't need to drive much thankfully, 7,300 miles in 5 years. This year is the first time I have driven it in the winter.

 

hell ya, thats great man! good stuff. I never dabbled with owning 2 cars yet, but I am starting to think half the benefit is to keep one of them nice and away from the winter road treatments haha.

i also will always consider a nice under body treatment on any of my next cars to at least combat the deterioration as much as it can.

and yea uptownsamcv I believe another member had that theory that the short flex pipe section is half the issue.

 

Does anyone remember when Warpspeed offered a Y with no flex? It was a ball flange instead, they called it superflo. I wonder how those held up. Probably not good since they went back to flex sections.

 

back when I had my CRX SI it had a donut gasket style flange similar to that and it never gave me any problems and I had that car for years. it even held up fine when I boosted it. I mainly remember just getting new bolts, springs and washers for it cause the previous owner had mismatched hardware holding it together.

here's what the new Vibrant flex looks like that I had installed last week.




this is the actual part and part number

 

i kinda remember that, its hard to say why they changed it back to flex, honestly my first guess isn't for longevity, my first guess would be cost savings /manufacturing choice or fitment issues (feedback).

each time i had the y-pipe installed (w flex) each time they had a tough time lining it up with the rest of the exhaust . i remember the first shop (a local i dont use anymore) called and said the part doesn't fit, and I am like wtf you talking about. they got it work tho

the 2nd time at a shop I have always used and are the best in my area, said it wasn't easy they had to heat up the y-pipe it into better alignment. keep in mind these are custom made parts so I am not knocking warpspeed at all just sharing experiences.

uptownsamcv thanks for sharing that part number and pics for the vibrant flex