I am doing some work on my car today, including preparing for poly control arm bushings, polyurethaning the remaining motor mounts, and fixing of my Y pipe as well as some misc. stereo stuff, so the car is gonna be outta commision again. No matter, i've got the honda 2 wheeler and my mom's camry to drive.

OK heres the deal, I peeked in my Y pipe, and sure enough, at the flex section it had bunched up into a teeny tiny hole, mine about the size of a nickel. I am going to see if I can get my friend's digital camera to take a picture of this phenomena. Its really wierd, because the stuff I see is all neatly woven, so its not like its just a random conglomerate of stuff just tossed together. Just to make sure it was not something that happens with a flex joint, I peered into my stock Y pipe's flex, and that did not suffer this problem at all. This is so odd.

Its amazing how the car even ran flat 15s and come to think I thought that was normal. Now, this really makes me wonder what my car is capable of running. I was happy with my times last night, but damn if I got a real Y pipe without a 1/2 inch restriction in the flex section, this thing should be a monster!

 

Alright I got the pics this time...ignore the shoes...

http://members.aol.com/ericdwong/images/restrict.jpg

 

Has Brian been told of this? Now should this be grounds for him to redesign his Y-Pipe?

 

mine had the EXACT same problem....except my hole was even smaller!!! Mine was no bigger than a pea....

I notified Brian Catts of my problem...and he basically told me to get lost....this is the second time my flex has failed in 1 year and the first time he fixed it no problem...but now he says it's a re-occuring problem with only one car and one driver...so it's somehow my fault!!!! WTF????

I'm sending my pipe to Warpspeed so they can put a WSP flex on it.

 

HOLY CRP!

That is appallingly bad. Can you tell from the exterior of the flex section that something may be amiss on the inside?

Man, are the paranoid ORGers destined to periodic checks of their Cattman Y-pipes? Is this grounds for a recall?

 

There are absolutely NO visual signs on the exterior of the y-pipe flex. Eventually the flex will start to leak...but mine was pluged up for almost 4 months before it started to leak. I think it's grounds for a recall....but Brian Catts thinks it's just MY car...and not HIS y-pipe.

 

Now you know your not the only on

 

Oh man!!!!!!!!!!!

Recall!!!! Mine has been sent back to him already. The opening was a bit larger than the size of a pea, and it majorly affected the power, choking the exhaust like a blocked cat.

It must be a design defect. If anyone else has the power loss problems, check your Y-Pipe!!!!!!!

 

Like I said, a full bolt on Max trapping at 92-93 mph has a problem, looks like you just found yours Eric. Get ready for 96+ mph traps buddy hehe.

 

Brian: I am in your exact same predicament. My pipe was exactly a year old to the month when my flex failed. Brian Catts refused to fix my pipe as well. He said he did not have the fabricating equipment to fix it. I am not happy with his way of handling issues like this. The pipe should be under warrantee and he is just leaving me hanging. I am trying to get him to send it to Warpspeed so they can fix it since I sent it to him. He insisted on seeing it in person. He hasn't emailed me back for 4 days. WTF???

 

I'm only trapping at 93 at 15.7

Last summer, I was only trapping at 90 at flat 16s.

I'm gonna put the stock Y-pipe back on.

 

Darn I am going to have to drop my Ypipe as well to see if this is my problem, I cant believe this is happening to everyone, I thought the Cattman Stainless steel Ypipe was the best pipe made? correct me if I am wrong anyone.

 

Are you guys talking about the SS Y-pipes?

-Nick

 

Yeah...304S, but who knows what the flex section is made of or who make 'em. For the people with known failures, when exactly did you buy these. Looks like the defect can pop up after just a couple months or more than a year... I doubt Mr. Catts will enlighten us on the probable cause or if he sourced the flex from different suppliers at some point--that would open up too much liability for him in terms of a recall. I wonder if this is a known problem with flex sections in general and not just Cattman's?

 

I saw this post and have to respond. ANY flex section can fail. This is why Dallas and I are alway looking for even better sections than the quality lined ones we now use. Below is a copy of an e-mail from 3/21 by Dallas in response to an similar concern.

"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

We are willing to fix any y-pipe reguardless of who made it. E-mail or call.

Dan WSP
__________________
"Race Proven Daily

 

So after all this, do you guys still think the Cattman Y-pipe is the "quality" y-pipe It seems that more times than not, Cattman y-pipes either don't fit well or fail in some sort. It's a shame people still continue to give this guy business even though his products seem to be mediocore and way too expensive.


Dave

 

I am giving him a chance to fix my Y-pipe problem and I hope he does. I choose him because I thought he was the best quality

 

I bought it at last years open house for $100. I was a bit skeptical at first, thinking there was going to be something wrong with it. Everything was fine, but I do get a little hissing noise from 2,600 to 3,400 RPM. I was thinking there could be a leak in the flex section, but I can't tell visually. Now I'm concerned about the flex section caving in like the Cattman pipe. Luckily, Stillen is only 12 miles away from me if I want to complain and I think I can round up an army to go with me.

 

The part throttle hiss is normal for the Stillen Y-pipe. Mine had the hiss when I had the Stillen Y-pipe. I now have the Warpspeed Y-pipe (lined flex) and I don't have any noise.


Dave

 

I've had the Stillen for almost a year now and have had absolutely no problems. I did have the "bees in the can" sound for the first week or two but after that it's been fine.

 

Everyone who is experiencing this problem, when did you purchase your Y-Pipe?

 

Wait a minute! The Cattman SS y-pipe doesn't have a flex section! Those use a slip joint, unless he changed the design since I got mine.

 

I've had my Y pipe since December of 2000. My flex broke in July of 2001 during Maxus and it was repaired with a new flex. However, I never checked the flex section joint. But, I'm sure Brian Catts is aware of the problem, seeing as he's most likely seen more then one pipe come back to him looking like this.

I honestly do not know how long it has been this way with the conglomeration. But I seriously am going to loose sleep over this one, seeing how its probably been like this for a real long time. I can't wait to see how the car does. You are right though, a modded Maxima 5 speed should do alot better then only 93 MPH, because my mom's utterly bone stock with full size spare tire and OE airbox 98 Toyota Camry auto v6 runs 93 MPH trap speeds, but only runs 15.4s.

I may try seeing if there is a different design that will eliminate the flex joint altogether. Apparently, Acura Integras (and probably other hondas) and GM front wheel drive cars all use spring bolts with a donut washer instead of flex joints. I'm going to look into this design, see if it can be used. I keep getting this mental image of that conglomeration in my mind, and now every race I've lost I know why... oh boy this is bad.

 

Well its my opinion that a longer flex pipe will eliminate the problem. A good exhaust shop could fix it if its out of warranty.

There isn't enough give with the current set up. I had my Y-Pipe only a couple of weeks when it failed.

 

I replaced mine yesterday after inspecting it because of this thread. Couple months ago,I noticed a drop in top end especially at the track where I could only muster a 93 mph trap speed ( last year I was at low 95 consistently.) Anyway, here pics of mine. As you can see, mine hadn't deteriorated to dime size but it's down to about 1.75" diameter.

The difference since the replacement is like night and day. I notice smoother acceleration and a definite power increase.

Looks OK from the outside



Collapsing flex from the inside

 

Whoa, that is a SMALL flex section. Is that the Cattman? My WSP flex section is much bigger. I was wondering how they could "collapse" without any external appearence change, but now I can see how. Thank goodness I went with the "cheaper" design.

 

Yup, it's a SS cattman and I got it almost two years ago. The new flex is longer (7 - 8") and hope this one stands the test of time.

 

Now I gotta check my Cattman Y


By the way, I haven't tried this yet, but I was watching Motorweek, and Pat Goss's garage was talking about welds failing in some lumina minivan exhuast (details are sketchy). The way they could tell, without removing the exhaust, was by using a digital thermometer. By taking readings on the exterior surface, it was able to pick up an increase in temp around the failed part. I wonder if this would work for the flex section as well. Hmmm . . .



DW

 

Interesting .... I got my Cattman SS pipe 2 years ago. The choices then were Stillen, with the flex section, the Cattman non-SS, with the flex section, and the SS, with the slip joint. The SS cost more but didn't have the "can of bees" sound. I went with the SS. I installed it myself, and last night I went under the car to double check - my SS pipe has no flex section. The idea is that there is enough flexibility in the whole exhaust to make it unnecessary. Except for some clearance problems on installation, this pipe's been fine.

 

I do believe it was a problem with Astro vans. He suggested using a digital thermo on the pipe. Temp above blockage would be higher than below. Same way as checking a cat for blockage.

 

Is that your Cattman? Bought my cattman August of 2000 and the flex section is maybe 3 times longer than that. Maybe that flex section is just too short to handle the stress of movement.

 

My flex section is also about three times longer than the one pictured....but when mine was viewed from the inside...there was only about a pea sized opening. So Cattman's longer flex sections aren't long enough.

 

Yes it is my Cattman flex, got it in July of 2000. What's interesting is that when I got mine he said that this was the last one and he had no gaskets to go with it. I wanted so bad at the time I said send it anyway. Hmmm......do you think he sent me a dud?

 

I too have had my Stillen for over a year and change, with no problems. The hissing is fine, as it sounds bad *** at WOT....

 

let's see what Mr. Catts have to say about this.

 

Ok, he's responded.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=107657

 

I must say I'm none too happy about shelling out top dollar to get a product that may or may not last a week, a month, or a year. How are we to diagnose if we have a problem without taking the pipe on and off every now and then to see if there is a failure, which of course is insane? So since I don't take my car to the track regularly the only way I'll be able to tell is by trusting my 'all-knowing-and-powerful butt dyno'? Well, there goes my peace of mind. Man, this sux.

 

You don't need to take the y-pipe off to check the flex section. Just disconnect it from the cat and you can see right into it (or remove the cat altogether). This is way easier and way quicker than taking the pipe off.

[Getting on soapbox] Guys I'm not in any way involved with Stillen but I've been very happy and impressed with the quality and workmanship of all the products I've purchased from them. Their prices are relatively high because they spend money on R&D - but you get a very high quality product in return. [Getting off soapbox]

 

I guess I will drop my straight pipe tomorrow night and check out my Stillen flex section.

 

I guess Brian changed over to the flex section on the SS pipes soon after I got mine because some people had vibration problems or complaints. Makes me glad I got mine early; no problems like this to worry about.