Hey all, i just bought and finally got done installing a y-pipe i brought off e-bay.... The auction didnt' say what company made the pipe, but it looked really good...the pipe i got was stainless steel and i payed $160 + shipping $30 bucks got it quick and compared it to a stock y-pipe i have laying around, and it looked like a perfect match that would fit with not trouble.... Well it turns out that it wasn't a good fit at all.... The front pipe that comes of the front exhaust manifold was a seperate piece from the rest of the pipe, which was odd but didn't strike me as a problem at first.... Although when i had the shop try to install it they showed me that once everything was bolted in place the pipes didnt' line up (the front piece and the rest of the pipe), they were about half an inch off.... So i had to have shop cut the pipe inbetween flanges and weld a new piece of piping on to both sides making it fit....Now that its installed everything is all good but that cost me a few extra bucks (50 to be exact)..... So in the long run my inpatients to wait on budget to send me a y-pipe ended up costing me more for a lower quality product.... Now that everything is in it feel great btw though.....

 

sounds like you may have gotten a Cali spec. but I could be wrong.

 

budget sent me the wrong size y-pipe. it made me look like fool at the exhaust shop. phat.

 

He did get a Cali Spec...they come in 2 pieces iirc.

Good heads up on the eBay pipe though. Alot of people were wondering about it. I'll be sure to link anyone else in the future. Next time you deal with eBay though make sure to contact the bidder if you have any doubts whatsoever.

 

yeah i spoke to him but only about the shipping time, he said it fit all maxes from 95-00 and i didn't know the cali spec was a dif. size..... oh well you live and learn

 

^^Hell man if anything you did the rest of the Maxima.org community a big favor by getting that pipe. That's really cool.

Did you leave negative feedback?

 

the pipe looks good and well made, the seller just doesnt know that theres cali spec and fed spec maximas Thanks for letting us all know.

 

lol thanx, nope funny thing is since the pipe looked like it sinked up just fine i left postive feedback....I guess if its cali spec its not really appropriate to leave neg. feedback since it technical does fit....i guess

 

Did the shop fit the two pipes together and tighten before trying to mount it to the manifolds?



Whenever puting flanged pieces together you should leave all the flanges loose until you get all the bolts started. I ran into a similar problem with my stillen pipe. Bolted the two pieces together and they wouldn't line up with the exhaust flanges. I had to loosen the first set of flanges then there was enough play in it to get everything lined up. Tightened everything down tight and no leaks.

What's different with the exhaust manifolds between cali and fed spec? I can't think of anything. Am I wrong?

 

Thats what I thought, using coming sense and all the manifolds should be the same size either way, it is just the amounts of pre cats in the y-pipe??? let me know if im wrong as well.

 

I always thought the 2 peice y pipe was a universal fit, including the extra O2 sensor bung?. Stillen has one (I think).... you use both peices for 95-98 BUT in 99-01 you have more emissions and you can't remove one precat cus its part of the manifold. So for the 99 (00-01) you keep one precat and bolt the y pipe to it. Here is a pic.



Here you see a Cattman prototype bolted to the left bank precat of a 1999 CA.

You know I think I just confused myself. I was tring to look up the differences and according to Warpspeed:

1995-1999 FED/CA (2000-402)
1999.5-2001 FED/CA (2000-502)
2000 FED is all by itself (2000-405) <---- makes no sence b/c its listed above

Then Cattman says:

1995-1998 FED/CA (YG4)
1999-2001 CA (YG5/CA)
1999-2001 FED (YG5)

And finally Stillen:

1995-1999.5 (503385)
1995-2001 (503386)


So Im lost and I dont think the Ebay pipe sellers know whats up either.

 

Your post gave me a headache...

 

He probably has no clue whats up he sells way more than maxima items.... As far as the fitment it definitely didn't fit, they bolted the flanges on the pipe to the 2 exhaust pipes first and then the parts of the new y-pipe that go together didn't sink up they were off more than just alil i'd say about an inch to an inch and a half..... It is a stainless steel pipe though and mandral bent of course besides fitment quality was excellent

 

Did they bolt them up tight or loose and it wouldn't fit?

 

i'd say tight but it was off enough so that if they had bolted them up loose it still wouldn't have fit due to the length and angle it was off