*edit* I would like to point out that this matter was resolved beyond my expectations. I am very satisfied. Please read Post #102 for a detailed explanation.

**edit** Final edit. My install experience can be read in Post #126.


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I am very upset/disapointed. I really agonized about making this purchase in the first place. The Wizard let me borrow his Catman Y for a week and it was great! So I already new Catman was tried and true. When I did searches on the Budget/LSS, there seemed to be mixed results. Some loved it and some claimed bees in a can. I decided to take my chances (for the money savings of course). I was prepared for the possibility of bees sound but I NEVER expected the terrible craftsmanship I received. I am not even installing it. This piece of cr@p is going right back to Canada and I am ordering a Catman.

Why am I posting this now when I received the pipe a week ago? That's because it took Jeff a week to get back to me. One week and 4 e-mails later I finally get a rude, ALL CAPS, e-mail that simply tells me to send it back. No explanation, no offer to make this right, no apology for the junk I received (my e-mail to him was respectful and polite, if firm).

My first impression was coming home to a destroyed box with both the Y-pipe leg's flanges hanging out! One leg had three bolts and only one nut barely hanging on. The other nuts were lost in transit. I took the Y-pipe out of the shredded box only to get silver paint all over my hands and on my front door entry carpet. It appears that all the flanges and welds are painted silver. Is this for aesthetic reasons - to hide anything displeasing to the eye?!!! The bung holes don't seem to be a very clean job and the inside wall, opposite the bunghole is extremely rough and not smooth. With all that said, and as disappointed as I was, I was still going to install the Y-pipe and use it.... until I saw something completely unacceptable. The pipe going from the flex section to the cat has an obvious exhaust leak! The pipe has a slit, running the length of the pipe about .5-1mm in width. Very unacceptable.

O.k., enough words, here are the pics:

Budget/LSS Y-pipe "in" the box
Another view of the Y-pipe in the box
Y-pipe out of box
Two missing nuts and one barely hanging on!
Rough surface on the inner wall opposite the rusted bunghole.
Inside wall at bunghole
Obvious exhaust leak and ugly welds
Bright orange placed behind exhaust leak opening (for easy viewing)
Damaged hardware due to poor box packaging
Ugly weld job at Y merge
This is what your hands look like after holding the Budget/LSS Y-poop for a minute!!

 

That looks like a POS! Damn. That is very disappointing. As you said, send it back and go with a company that stands behind their products. Sometimes that little extra money is worth it.

 

Is that y-pipe stainless steel or aluminized? I bought a stainless steel y-pipe a year ago from Budget and have had no problems with it whatsoever. Fitment is perfect and no bees in the can.

 

wow that thing looks like crap. I just got my SS Y from Top Speed for a $100 and mine cam perfectly boxed and the thing looked like it should be sold for $500. Perfect welds, perfect bungholes, perfect stainless steal, perfect flanges, etc etc. The only thing it didn't come with was the hardware (bolts, crush rings, etc.) but I work at a dealership and got that all for free anyways. But I guess that would be one reason why there was a significant reduced price on this piece. All in all, this was the best $100 I could have ever spent on my car. No bees in the can and no leaks.

 

WOw... i bought the SS from them too 3 months ago, none of those problems and so far very happy with my purchase...BUT.... i gave a 5star rating to your thread so ppl find some useful information in here. Best of luck.

 

Damn! that package looks like it got raped by an elephant ... or someone thought there was something of value in there and decided to tear it open...

you're right that is unacceptable on behalf of Budget... but you think maybe you just got the POS exception? i truly doubt all their peices are such POS.

- Sorry for your luck :-/

Personally im still undecided with which company to go with for my Y-pipe.. but i guess im scratching Budget off my list.

btw anj109 how much would it cost someone to buy whatever bolts / crush rings that are required to install the Top Speed that weren't provided?

 

^^^You can't buy Top Speed any longer I don't think.

This is disappointing. It almost seems like everyone but Cattman is getting lazy as far as y-pipes go. First the Super Flo WS, now Budget. Very disappointing, and I didn't even spend the money like you did.

 

the crush rings are like $3 a piece (2 of them I think) and the bolts are pocket change. All in all, i think all the hardware is like around $20.

 

When I got my Y pipe from the courier it was totally wrapped up in plastic.

I've had the Budget Y pipe on since Feb.2003 with no problems at all. Then I got their B pipe last October.

 

this "slit". Can you confirm it's split from inside?? If so, then agree, return it. But most of the other stuff is ok. Looks like the did put a huge blob at the beginning of the slit to fix something though. If the slit does indeed go all the way though, it would be easy to have someone weld it. Not the prettiest thing but it would be alot faster than returning it. And you don't want to run the Y with a slit (if indeed it goes all the way though)

Box: Well whomever shipped it mangled it.
Welds: Welds must be good first, pretty second. If the weld is decent, I wouldn't really care about how it looks.

 

It shows a little at the top.
next pic.

 

Yeah I see the weld pentration but I don't see a hole. I do see where a jig was placed to hold the pipe in place to bend or something similar. If it fits well, I'd just run it. Budget pipes are just that, budget. You want something that's pretty, you have to pay extra. If it doesn't fit, then I'd have a problem

The way the pipe is fit in there sucks though.

 

Message to Jeff(the one mentioned in the original post) I was within a week of ordering my SS y-pipe from you, now no such luck. Do you have the # for cattman???

also what is there price?

and even though it is highly unlikely id order from budget after reading this, is it possible the SS is better than this?

 

That's what I'm getting at. Is this an aluminized pipe? I suspect it is, with the paint coming off like that. The SS pipes aren't painted like that and I don't think you would encounter those problems with it.

If Budget is going to go down in flames because of this isolated incident on a 4th Gen y-pipe, similar logic would dictate that Nissan would not sell another 6th Gen Maxima in North America.

Send the y-pipe back collect and get a SS y-pipe from them before you waste your money on a Cattman.

 

I just installed a Full Cattman exhaust on my max and it is bad a$$. Yes, it was expensive, but you get what you pay for! That y pipe looks like mierda! now you have to spend extra money to ship it back and who knows if they will refund your money or send you another POS. That has happened to me before with other products and I learned my lesson. Good luck to you. If you want me to post my exhaust pics I can.

 

I guess I should have mentioned I have a stainless steal Y but I guess I thought it was common knowledge that Budget only makes SS for '99s. So yes it is SS but I don't follow you logic anyway murdoch because even if it were aluminum, that is still no excuse for receiving what I did.

It isn't so much that I want to bash Budget or stop any future sales. If that was my intention, I would have started this thread the day I received my Y-Poop. In fact, I wanted to work this out with him on the side. That's why I waited a week. But after waiting a week and having to send 4 e-mails just to finally get a rude all-caps response with no acknowledgement of my particular issues, I had enough. Between the product I received and the (lack of) customer service I received, I think it is fair that I let other .org members know. I may be an isolated incident but there is still no excuse for it!

Cattman is not a waste of money. Unfortunately it is considerably more ($350 vs $200) but I had one on my car for a week and the craftsmanship was top notch. Brian Catts has extremely excellent customer service (e-mail him a question and you'll get a novel in return), great packaging, great product. My car means too much to me, I am not going to cut corners.

 

stick with cattman i have is full exhaust and getting headers soon also...you pay for what you get..spend alittle extra and get the good stuff

 

It is shown by him holding that bright orange thing behind the pipe, and looking through it. There is a noticable orange crease/line in the middle, under the penetrating weld.

 

Well, I feel for you, particularly given the treatment you received.

I don't know what's happened in the past year. A 5th Genner posted a month or so ago about a problem he had with Budget/LSS that was inexcusable. However, the customer service and product I received almost a year ago to the day was A-1 and I am more than happy with it.

 

yeah. just email him those pictures and get a replacement asap. A pipe with a confirmed split like that is pretty bad. Especially when they add a tack weld right there also. Shows that they knew the split was there.

Good luck.

 

Ever since Budget changed to LSS, I have not heard many good things at all about them. I have the old school Black Budget and it is PERFECT(although I installed a better flex since I bought it used busted)

 

It's not a hole it's a slit. Exaust pipe is made from sheetmetal rolled into tube form and welded(or fused you might say) at the seam. The seam is not welded!

Glad I bought my american warpspeed pipe

 

just asking

is Jeff92se the Jeff at LSS?

 

That would be a good thing in this case, wouldn't it?

 

cattmans are no better in two years time mine has rotted to the point where exhaust is leaking. the rings on the flex are almost gone .
For $425 shipped i was ripped off more , For that kind of money the rings should be 304 ss and the flanges. And my b pipe after 2 years is scaling everywhere its a mess.
JUNK i will buy cheap next time

 

Man that sucks. But you can't call the whole basket of apples bad because of one bad one. Reputable companies known for top notch quality craftsmanship is no exception when it comes to this. Not everyone in the company will be equally thorough and proud of their work. There's always someone that's going to slack off and cut corners. And then, you have people in shipping not checking things before shipping them off. So the customer ultimately suffers. Not only did they waited, they paid even before receiving their purchase. And when finally received, someone like ptatohed ends up being disappointed. All that waiting for nothing. This is the very thing that plagues e-commerce businesses since it began many years ago. And many e-commerce business end up closing because of wreckless and ignorant staff that couldn't get their act together and ending up pulling the entire company down the pooper.

I do sympathize with ptatohed. Had this happened to me, I'd be on the phone raising hell...forget emails. I'd make them pay for your shipping cost when returning this. If Budget continues to show a bad attitude regarding this, then they will be finished at least with the 4th geners.

 

Well, since you didn't see the obvoius slit, it seemed you were trying to sway opinions in other direction.


Anyway..
What a coincidence!
I just got home and my warpspeed pipe was delivered today!

If somebody can host pictures for me, I'll post comparison pics.

It sure looks sweet! BTW ...its the aluminized mandrel bent. My hands are not silver!

 

I also told him to send it back. You must have missed that post that's just above.

The slit is not that clear to me. The line outside the pipe is. But that's not an automatic sign of a leak. But since the pipe is SS, I'd elect to send it back. If it was just aluminized AND if it fit well, I'd just weld it myself in about 5 min. But I realize not everyone has a welder handly like I do. It would be less for ME to just fix it. Even though I would feel entitled to a replacement.

 

Try www.imageshack.us . Its free.

 

sorry abotu everythign man, headaches headaches...wut else is new with buying **** now a days. no one can be trusted... but that box looks like ace ventura delivered it...

 

wow, that sucks, i just got my budget 2 weeks ago, and i love it.
Yes, my hands did turn silver, but as long as the ypipe lasts, its fine with me.
seems like you got bad luck with this ypipe of yours.

 

that sucks man ... anybody that would send you a product with something comming of on your hands is a moron ... I just have 2 things to the say: im pretty sure that whoever the shipping company was-fedex, ups, has something to do with that box looking the way it does...but it should have maybe been wrapped in plastic...and 2nd: the Warpspeed Y pipe group deal is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... why dont people just get the aluminum Warp. Y....for 160 shipped you cant beat it !!!!! and it sounds great and fits perfect!!!!

 

I told 2 of my very good friends to get the Warpspeed and now both of them have the bees in can noise

 

The packaging should have been done by Budget. Shippers are responsible for packaging. When they bring their package to a hub or if its picked up and brought to the hub, all they do is label it and reinforce the box with tape if necessary.

Budget's shipping/receiving dept. should have done a better job at this. Then you got a spray paint fiend painting the ypipe before shipping it. That stuff will never dry like that thus it ended up on the customer's hand.

Like you said, the mistakes came from one moron to another.

 

How do you get a hold of budget by email?

 

i dont really have the bees in the can sound from my budget.

 

oh snap, i just ordered mine from budget today actually. i hope it doesnt end up like that!

 

I choose e-mail because it bothers me a lot when a company does not have a toll free number. Every company should have one.

Anyway, here are the e-mail addresses that I have:
mufflers@netcom.ca
mufflers@allstream.net

They show an e-mail address on their Budget site but not their LSS site.
http://thewrx.netfirms.com/bpe/BPE/contact/contact.htm

 

A year ago when I bought my y-pipe, I liaised with them at mufflers@allstream.net

I don't know whether that is the same since they became known as lssexhaust, but I suspect so.

 

I posted their 1-800 previously. I'm not sure if it still works because I haven't tried it in a year: 1-800-256-4482.