RClyatt

Discovered today I too am victim to the flex section collapse on the y-pipe. It has been over a year and Stillen will not honor the manufacturing defect. If I could persuade any of you fellow maxima owners please go with someone who will atleast honor what they sell. I have attached the response. For all of you who have a Stillen Y-pipe and it has not been a year since you purchased it, be sure to jack the car up loosen up the catalytic convertor and look inside your Y-pipe to ensure you do not have a defective piece. Yea right everybody will do that and everybody has the tools to do that, what a joke..HIS RESPONSE" Robert,
let me first apologize for any confusion. I can only assume that Kenny was clearly not asking either the correct staff member or the correct question, with regard to your situation. We do not send replacement parts on a failed piece out of it's warranty period under any circumstances. As Marshall informed you, Stillen would be happy to offer you a one time replacement at a next level pricing reduction. As I am sure you are well aware, most muffler shops can replace a flex joint for very little cost to you. I hope this clears up any confusion as the part does have a one year warranty and is unfortunately well out of that period.

Best regards,
Bill Claytor
Stillen Customer Service

Pictures to follow

sbslacker

iTrader: (1)

"one time replacement at a next level pricing reduction"

RClyatt

Pics for those interested. [url]http://www.clyatt.com/maxima[url]


Bill
Today I was at the muffler shop having my new Random Technology cat installed on my 2k Maxima and thought I would look up into the Y-pipe as I have heard other manufactures(Cattman) were having problems with the flex
section of the y-pipe. Much to my surprise the pipe I purchased from Stillen has the same problem the flex section of the pipe has collapsed on itself. I called and spoke with Kenny(the sales rep I have always used) and he
stated he would send me a new one and the new ones were made of a better material than the one I currently have on the car. He asked me to hold as he wanted to ask the master technician a question. He then came back on the line and said the technician stated that was ok and it did not need to be replaced. I asked to speak with the technician and explained the situation again and he stated the part is out of warranty, and this was the first he had heard of
this problem. I have three stories and am not sure as to which one to believe but have attached some photos for your review. I would appreciate if you could respond to me today regarding this issue.

Thank you

Robert Clyatt

2K1HoMax

DAMN thats collapsed alright i think im gonna check up on mine asap its been only 2months since i got it too, if i see a web in there....

RClyatt

Why dont you call them and ask if they are having any reported problems with this, and then regardless of the response let them know there is a lot of info on the org about the quality of a pipe one of the members purchased from them. Feel free to use my name Robert and I spoke with Bill at Stillen..Let me know how it turns out..

2K1HoMax

ill keep posted with any info i can get, ill try to call tomorrow.

RClyatt

Ok let me know what ya find out..

RClyatt

Stillen operates in Stealth mode so, no sense in e-mailing Steve as he only accepts snail mail. Nothing else..

2K1HoMax

i got a hold of my guy out at stillen and what he tyold me was that from what he know there are maybe like 2 reports of a failing flex section out there, and for the warranty..... ??? my guess is u got one of the pipes made a while ago(its still shoulndt fail, dont get me wrong) like a 2yrs a go and sat for a year or so before it was sold and installed. thats no excuse for its failure but i dont know what to say about it, i mentioned u and he said he had no idea becasue he wasnt the one to deal with u so he didnt know anything about whats happened. either way good luck with it and ill be checkin up on mine shortly. peace

RClyatt

The problem with the failure is there probably is more out there, but who runs out to the garage jacks the car up takes apart the exhaust system and shines a mag light down the hole. Besides that if you want Stillen to bak their un-published year warranty you need to check it before your year is up or your outta luck..

2K1HoMax

im pretty sure i have no warranty at this point anyway because my y-pipe assembly is complety (except the flex section, obviously) heat wrapped. also the pic that i saw was horrible like 70% or more of the passage was clogged, didnt u feel any loss is power?????? or since it happened G-R-A-D-U-A-L-Y it just felt the same every day but over time its loss in power would be evident. im still gonna check up on mine when i install me RT cat later on this month so ill just have to see what happens. as for noe good luck with yours i hope i dont have that same problem.

RClyatt

I honestly do not think I felt any loss of power. There is actually no telling when this occured. Could have been the fist time I fired the car after the install which I would have never known. I drive the car daily back and forth to the office, and tend not to get in it all the time as my little boy is with me and mama would holler if she knew I was racing with the kid in the car.

2K1HoMax

hehe, gotch ya. i wouldnt race with a kid in the car either. but that weird though because that quite a pileup of flexsection cloggin up the exhaust. hmmmm weird?

RClyatt

Am I honestly the only one with this problem ?? Or am I the first to discover that the Stillen pipe has the same problem as did the other vendors. They fixed their problem has Steal'n ??

2K1HoMax

i think that at this moment that u could be the only one that has this probelm, no1 esle has reported anything about a defective y-pipe from stillen. u personally havent had the time to check mine yet, but you cant be the only one with a defective stillen y-pipe if there was one there usually is more, just we dont know it yet. as for them correcting the problem, i dont know whats goin on thats stillens business with u. now with the other vendors i personally dont recall ever seeing any problems with warpspeed pipes, and as with cattman they had only a few incidences and everyone just blew up on it. i dont know what to say about ur situation at this time though, its all on u what u do next. i personally would just buy another one from another vendor, i dont think its worth the headache and the runaround that stillens gonna give u, but thats ur choice what u decide to do.

RClyatt

My point exactly, a company has a few instances and they resolve the issue. I have already done what I can do with Stillen. I faxed Steve, I wrote a letter to Steve and I filed a complaint with the BBB in California. While the situation stinks I have moved on, I think it is up to Stillen now, they can do what they claim on their web-site about quality or their page is nothing more than BS.

2K1HoMax

yeah their web site hasnt been upgraded in like 3yrs or something, but the BBB wont have much to say because its an illegal mod in the first place, there probably just goin to point the finger back at u. and stillen really should cover it which is bs, especially since ur the only one at this point. i just think that stillens gonna let it go, and hope u forget about it. just get another y-pipe thats all i can say at this point, i really woundt expect stillen to help u out on this 1.

y2kse

iTrader: (1)

The problem, of course, is that the Y-pipe is out of warranty. I think it's safe to say that no Y-pipe manufacturer will repair the flex section of a Y-pipe that's out of warranty. That includes Cattman, although Brian did indicate that he would extend the warranty if a Cattman Y-pipe with a flex section problem was a month or two out of warranty.

The moral of the story is simple. If you have a Y-pipe and it's still under warranty, check the flex section NOW!

Kevin Wong

I have the Stillen 2-piece pipe that I bought from the Open House. I had my Maxima dyno'd almost a month ago and was really displeased with the max power rating. I was about 15 HP shy of what I was expecting and my 1/4 mile times really off. I just changed my spark plugs and fuel filter...I'm getting no error codes, and my exhaust tip looks like I'm running neither lean nor rich. As soon as I buy my air compressor and tools, I'm going to take a look at my flex section.

RClyatt

I sure would, I never noticed the loss in powere until I removed the bad flex and replaced with a good section of flex hose. Good luck let me know how it turns out..

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

Great, now I have to check my Stillen Y. I've started taking my car to the track lately, and it's running really slow for a SC'd car. People told me to check the Y, but since I didnt' have a Cattman, I thought I would be ok. Gues it's time to get under the car.

2K1HoMax

well after all this time went by i finally had time to check my y-pipe like 2weeks ago. i even eyeballed the insides all the way up to the headers just to make sure everything was cool with my fiberoptic lense. abosolutely perfect on the inside and even the outside, not even 1 rust spot and its been like 8months now its ive driven threw some hard rain. maybe the reason there is no rust spots is cuz i heat wrapped it and i cant see it, hey still no complaints on my part im happy. so far looks like there is only one case of the stillen pipe's flex section caving in. btw Shadow the reason ur car is runnin slower, even for a S/C car is due to the fact that its summer, i know u already know that though, but to be on the safe side check urs out as well. peace.

nismo2020

iTrader: (1)

step ahead.

already replaced the flex section. it was all phucked up. dont know if it had collasped but the flex section weaves were busted open and out. cost me like over 100 bucks. Grand Muffler of Symrna GA.

RClyatt

Did you contact Steal'n about it ?? I did along with the BBB of California. They gave me $75 credit after I raised hell, even though it costed me $150 to buy a new flex section and heve it welded on. Along with numerous contacts with the Customer relations Manager and mailing the bad section back in and a complaint with the BBB. Oh well quality is not something Stillen stands behind, but their web site would state differently. Learned my lesson..