I went to pick up the car today, which now sports the stock pre-cat, but still has the JWT Intake and Custom Exhaust, so that I could take it to my friends dealership. He was interested in buying it.

As I left Balanced I pushed the gas hard and the car pulled as hard or harder than it has ever pulled before!!!!!!!!!!!!

I drove it a little ways more to make sure it wasn't temporary and sure enough it ran like a scalded dog!!!!! I shifted into third and the tires spun like crazy!!

I turned around and went back to Balanced and asked them if they had done anything else other than take off the Y-Pipe and return that to stock, and they told me thats all they had done. I told them how good the car was running, so we decided to take a closer look at the Y-Pipe.

Allen shined a light into the cat end of the pipe and no light was shining through, so he looked inside and to our amazement the cat end of the flex pipe was blocked up by the inner section of flex pipe, which had apparently worked its way loose and strangulated the exhaust. The opening was down to just larger than the diameter of a pea!!!!!!

We had found the problem, finally. I should have listened to my wife who hounded me about the Y-Pipe, asking if it could have a blockage. I told her that its just a pipe, what could block it up. Now we know!!!!!!

We drove the car around all night after leaving my friends lot, deciding whether or not to sell it. It drove great all night, and it is such a pleasure to drive again!!!!

I decided to go ahead and sell it and I am more than likely buying a 92 Maroon VR-4 that has been taken care of well. My car dealer friend offered me too much money too turn down.

I will miss it, what a great car it is again!

Those of you that are having similar problems and have the Cattman, I highly suggest taking a look at the flex pipe, from the inside. There will be no outward signs, other than the exhaust being quieter and not as throaty.

All that time and it was a simple fix.

Cattman will warranty the pipe and send me a new one in a few days.

 

I replied over at po.com. I advocate you keeping it. I mean you at least know the car has been thorougly inspected and completely tuned up. Plus, imagine what time you will run at the track now, MAYBE you MAY come close to my time . Well, by this weekend I will no longer be stock so the gap may widen and if you do get the VR4, I'll be on your tail or door like flies to........poop.

 

dont tell me this...you haven't broken the record yet for modded N/A 5 spd. You have the fastest stock time. You should keep it, after all the work you have recently done, you know its good for another 100k+ miles. Don't even get me started on problems with vr4's. Don't sell it just yet.

 

Ditto

 

Yet another case of a failed flex section. Sheesh.

 

Its partially a financial move, I am making money selling it, and I need too after paying the bills on it!

I would love to keep it, but right now this is the best financial move. I have always kind of wanted a VR-4 too. If you want to talk about problems, after massively modifying my Prelude, I probably spent about $10K in repairs and maintenance. I was replacing clutches every 3K miles! I know what to look for with the VR-4, and this one was taken care of. With VR-4's you have to watch the cooling system and the tranny the most. Both are fine on this car.

 

coencidentally I took a look at the Cat side of the y-pipe tonight BEFORE I read this post...as my cattman y-pipe was leaking badly Before I took it off and put a replacement on. Mine had the exact same problem...I almost couldn't believe it....the hole that remained inside the y-pipe was about the size of a pea.....that's why my car was losing most of it's hp...and that's why my dyno showed a drop in hp and tq over the entire RPM band.....jeez....

 

Well, at least we now know what the mysterious problem is. I hope everyone with a Cattman reads this in case they encounter the problem down the road.

 

How long is the warrenty on his flex section?

 

I wonder if thats my problem with my car, my GeeRide use to be
loud with the cattman Ypipe but over that last couple of months it got quiet so lets see if thats my problem with my car. I have to do a thorough inspection on my car. Hopefully I can do it this Sunday prior to taking it to the dealership to get some seals replaced that are suppose to be under warranty.

 

Hey, guys I have a WSP y pipe and have noticed a performance loss. Do you think this could be happening on WSP pipes too?

 

this is what makes me hesitant to mod my Max.

I want an intake but then it seems like a bunch of people are having problems with oil from the K&N coating the MAF screen (or whatever that is) and having lost performance.

I want a Y-pipe but then I read about all of these problems with broken flex sections, lost performance, and leaks all over the place. geezz...

I'm all for modding, but I can't afford the time or money to have my car in the shop all of the time, especially since my Max is my only car

Honda mods seem to be in general, a lot more reliable. I had an intake on my Accord V6 and so did every other Accord V6 owner and hardly anybody ever had problems. A ton of people also had Comptech Headers and never had any problems with them at all either.

What gives with all of these seemingly "unreliable" Maxima mods??

 

my stillen flex section was AFU. the strands started coming undone and "bunching up". once i got it replaced the car felt stronger. Veetec sorry to see that you are still selling the car. i really dont think its fair to the car(and us). if it you would have know what the problem was from the beginning you wouldnt be selling it.

 

I doubt it, first of all the flex sections on ours are welded so that the crimped ends of the flex section are welded as well, even our TIG welded pipes. That means there is virtually no way for it to slip loose from the crimp, we have seen several others from Stillen and the like which were not welded in that manner so it is potentially possible to have happened but probably not common. I have heard of one of our original unlined flex sections which failed but it was never returned to us to verify. I have heard nothing but good reports on the lined flex sections we started using in May of last year.

We have been testing another design of flex section with a different type lining but I have to bring in several different type cars to make sure it will clear the different configurations because it is larger in diameter. I will be putting one on a 2001 Maxima Y pipe next week as a test pipe. We don't know yet if there will be any long term differences or benefits from it as of yet as it sounds and has performed the same so far in our initial testing. Whenever we find something new we try to get a sample and see how they compare with what we are using.

Dallas

 

Dallas, are you sure I probably wont have a problem? I have one of your old y pipes and had a new lined flex section welded on there. Am I still ok?

 

How long ago did you purchase the pipe? I am curious because Cattman refused to warrant my pipe when the flex joint failed. It was exactly a year from when I bought it.
He just keeps dishing out these excuses everytime I email him. When he responds that is. Needless to say, I am not happy with his professionalism or businesss management.

 

No what makes me mad is that a stock Y-pipe lasts about 8 years without a dent or crack but my cattman aftermarket Y-pipe did not even last 8 months without the flex section cracking and the pipe denting I might look into stock again.

 

More flex section problems on the Cattman y-pipe . My brother and a few local guys around Chicago have had the same problem. Hearing about all the problems i'm glad i went with the Stillen.

 

Damn! First it's the high price (which I thought was because of higher quality). Then it's the fitment problems (one flange had to be torched off and rotated, front pipe had to be bent up to reduce serious tension. And now there is a problem with flex sections?

Do you guys with problems think that this is a fitment problem with too much tension/movement placed on the flex section or a problem with the flex sections themselves. If my muffler shop did not bend the very front pipe upward, the front section might not sit as neutral as it does now with the rear portion after the flex.

...man do I regret spending the bux on Cattman's Y-pipe.

 

Hmmm...If you look back at my post on the other thread. It says to check the cat. When those cats get clogged, weird things happen. Trust me! I spent about $2k fixing things, and all it was the cat all along. I paid $180 for a new stock cat at midas on a saturday(Since the car would not run at all anymore.) And it has ran better ever since, with now problems(Knock On Wood). I will be putting on my high flow cat soon, it is sittin on my fish tank. Hopefully I will see some gains out of that.

 

Mine had only been on a couple of weeks when it failed, so it better be under warranty. He replied saying to send him back the Y-Pipe.

 

He told me to send it back and he will investigate it. If he finds that it was not his workmanship at fault I am paying for any repair and shipping. Is my Y-pipe soppused to hang down farther then anthing else under my max so that it hits the ground when I bottom out My stock one did not ?

 

i dont think thats normal.

 

Front downpipe right? Yup, when I prototyped the Cattman Y for the VE about 3 years back, I told him to move it up. He did but it wasn't enough. I guess he never went and redesigned it. For VGs I guess it's fine, but for the VE, it sucks *****.

 

well i have my Cattman Y sitting in my room waiting to be put on...now im a little hesitant...can i hear some success stories please....

sabe

 

Do a search. This is a complient thread I will have to decomission my max for the time it takes to send the Y-pipe back to the time I get it back from cattman. I wish I had a back up!

 

Hey, it is a great mod. I do think that possibly it is poor craftmanship becaus my y-pipe from Cattman broke at the flex after I had it for about 1 1/2. I have a friend that works at midas so I just took it to him and he weilded it back together...and it works fine, but when that thing broke or I should say cracked. it didn't sound healthy at all. But, I didn't feel any power lose. But, I will be putting a straight pipe on, and will check out the y-pipe to make sure there aren't any flowing problems. My car still runs great though and I think the Y-pipe is a must performance mod.

-John

 

Well guys I may be another victim. Recently my car just doesn't pull the way it used to. Also the exhaust sounds a bit funny. I am almost certain this is the problem, I've had my y-pipe since the summer of last year so not sure if Cattman will warranty it.
When it gets warmer out, I will remove the pipe and reinstall the factory pipe. This really sux.