it's wide open and clean as a whistle. Granted, my Maxima is strictly a street machine; I rarely race it or take off hard from a dead stop. But I love to accelerate to red line at WOT and do so often. (Freeway on-ramps are my friends! )

BTW, I bought my Cattman Y-pipe in June of 2001.

Hope that helps!

 

Mine is just fine too... and I race it all the time. I think it is a certain batch of pipes that are messed up, we got lucky.

 

You could be right, Nealoc187. I think there are two parts to this equation. The first is the design of the defective flex section itself. Brian Catts has addressed that issue ad nauseum. The second is individual driving habits. I tend to drive conservatively. As a result, I doubt I'll ever have a problem with my flex section even if it is defective!

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that you race your car and your flex section is OK is much more interesting than the fact that I DON'T race my car and my flex section is OK.

 

I just checked mine last night, too! It was all good. About the most abuse I gave it was autobahn running on the highway regularly, 100-110 mph, rushing to work in the mornings Ocaaisional racing, too.

What's odd for me is that when I put it back together, the exhaust tone changed, like I have a leak now. But once the car warms up, it sounds normal. I don't know how I could have a leak. I bolted that thing up tight. Nearly broke my ratchet. Any ideas? I'm going to replace the gaskets with stock ones soon. Hopefully that should fix it. If you guys have other suggestions, let me know. Thx.

DW

 

That should do it. The exhaust gaskets don't like to be crushed more than once.

 

What took you so long to put it on?

 

LOL ummm disregard....

"inspected".....not "installed"

James

 

np

 

Now this makes me wonder. Are you talking about the gaskets that go between the exhaust manifold and the Y pipe, or the ones between the catalytic converter?? My Cattman came with gaskets for the exhaust manifold. I hope I'm OK with still using those. The ones I plan on replacing are between the CAT.

DW

 

Sadly, my inspection revealed a failing flex section
this weekend...

I bought mine late 2000.

 

The gaskets I'm talking about are the ones between the catalytic convertor. The Nissan part number is 20692-24U00. Dave Burnette sells them for under $2.50 each.

 

What's your driving style, vbxmaxima? Do you race your Max?

Again, the reason I ask these questions isn't to imply that it's wrong to drive aggressively or race your Maxima. I'm simply trying to find out if stress on the flex section is one of the required conditions leading to flex section failure.

Another way to phrase the questions would be this: Has anyone who has NOT driven aggressively or raced their Maxima ever experienced flex section failure with a Cattman Y-pipe? Or am I the only person who has purchased a Cattman Y-pipe and not subsequently raced their Maxima or driven it aggressively?

 

Phew! That's a releif!

DW

 

Be aware that the part number I posted is for a 5th Gen Maxima with a 3.0L engine. The part numbers for your 98 Maxima may be different, but the prices should be roughly equivalent.

 

Yeah, I ordered the ones for my 98. Thx, man.

DW

 

"Aggressive" is such a relative term!

Does the wifey think I'm nuts? Yes.
How about my friends? Some would say yes.
- my Maxima friends? -Perfectly normal

I have been out to the track with it...
I'd go more, but I have a "new mouth to feed"

My feeling currently that it is a quality/robustness issue.
I'm not too upset since Cattman is taking care of it.
But the issue is probably with the manufacturer of the flexes.
If not that, I wonder if the flex sections are long enough?
-Anyways, just thinking out loud...

 

No doubt about it, vbxmaxima. The issue becomes more interesting for people in my position, however rare such people may be. I simply don't know if I've got a defective flex section nor am I likely to find out. That's because I'll probably never meet one of the requisite conditions that causes the flex section to fail.

Whether I have a defective flex section is more of a curiosity than a concern for me at this point. But I'm curious just the same.