Nismo

iTrader: (18)

Just wondering. I dont know if it may be related to tranny type but I heard that flex sections can be damaged due to harsh jolting of the engine which 5speeds experience more than autos.

ArcticMax

It is a design flaw.

The flex sections are too short. I mean, Way too short..

There is a reason why the flex on the factory Y-pipe is that long. Same for the Budget pipes as well. And the Stillen too.

Because the Cattman's flex section is too short, it cannot handle the degree of motion experienced when the car jolts, or when the whole exhaust piping moves around. Let's remember that exhaust piping along with the muffler is attached by rubber joints, so that it can move around when needed to. And because the rubber attachments will absorb vibration as well.

But, the Cattman flex section is way too short. After I took the Pipe off, i tried to bend the flex section to see how flexible it is. And guess what, it is not very felxible at all. The flex on my brother's Budget ypipe is very flexible, so is the factory Y.

It is easy to picture how the lining on the inside of the flex section can "pop" off from the attachment points at the end.

ArcticMax

the reason why Cattman put on flex section that short is to reduce the hissing noise.

But I still had some hissing noise.

Budget Y-pipes flex section is long as hell, and it bareley makes a noise... Apparantly, somebody doesn't know how to design a product.

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (1)

You need to learn what you're talking about before you go bashing designs.

The flexs on the cattman y-pipes DO NOT fail becuase of their length. The flexs are DEFECTIVE. The liner is not welded in like other flexes when the flex was manufactured. Not all Cattman y-pipes have this problem. There were two different flexes carrying the same part number that cattman has used for the last year and a half...one of them is defective...one isn't. It's as simple as that. The non-defective ones have an almost ZERO failure rate. Explain that with your "length theory"

sbslacker

iTrader: (1)

Does anyone have pictures that show the two different flex sections that you are talking about? I bought my pipe about 8 months ago, and although I haven't had any problems yet, I'm curious which type of flex I have...

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (1)

They look identical on the outside....if you bought your pipe 8 months ago...and have had no problems at all...you should be fine...I would detach the y-pipe from that cat and have a look anyway if I was you though...

ArcticMax

ok,maybe I'm a little too hard on Cattman, but if something you paid $400 for fails this quick, I think you would be angry too.

But to get to the point,

Ok, maybe it is not ALL because of design, I know the flex section is DEFECTIVE.

But my point is, the short flex section only helps the section to fail quicker.

The stress on the engine mount is greatly reduced when the flex section is longer and more flexible. There are valid reasons why the flex section needs to be of certain length.