S14 Apexi N1 exhaust fitment problems.......

[s14joe]

I bought my Apexi N1 3 months ago. I installed it myself and everything was good for about 2 weeks.

I got to my friends shop and decide to put my car on the lift and check things out for the hell of it. I noticed that the resonator was touching the driveshaft.So I remove the exhaust and then re attach it. It helped a bit but the resonator was still prettly close to the driveshaft.

I return to the shop to get my Kaaz 2 way installed and again that I noticed that there was still an issue between the resonator and driveshaft touching.Now there are grooves in my driveshaft. We install the the 2 way and break it in. Still the problem exists. I decided to heat up the exhaust hangers w/ a torch and adjust them a bit. This proved to be ok because I created a 1/2 gap by manipulating the hangers. Next, I bring the car to a body shop and put it on a frame rack and the frame was straight. I thought maybe a bent frame could be throwing off the alignment of the exhaust. All fine and dandy.

So now life is great and I'm having my fun w/ the 2 way. This happiness ends. I hear a rattling sound coming from the exhaust. I look and investigate but couldn't find the problem. I decide to go to Mineke mufflers and it turns out that my muffler is shot!

I bought this system from Heavy Throttle. I called them and spoke to Jeff. We had a great conversation I told about each of the problems I had since I bought it from him and he would not understand that I paid $450 for this POS exhaust and I deserved better service. Obviously he didn't give a shit because he already had my money.

Now I decide to call Apexi. I called them and speak to Wen. I explained to him in detail whats going on. He tells me since I altered the hangars that the warranty is void He told me if I send the exhaust to him that he would test fit it on another 240. I told him that great but now the Exhaust can is blown and rattling. By this time my blood is boiling and I can't believe that I spent $450 on an exhaust and it didn't fit and it's now broken after 3 months! He was acting like a douche and that was that.

Now, I go to a 240 meet and I meet this guy w/ a '95 S14 just like mine. After talking with him he tells me that he has the Apexi N1. I could not help going into my rant about my problems with my N1. Turns out that he had the same exact fitment problem as I did. The resonator was hitting the driveshaft.
He also had to heat up and bend the exhaust hangers to get it to fit correct.
This confirmed that my car was not messed up

Now I'm in the market for a new exaust.I like the Apexi GT spec but I am afraid to buy another Apexi exhaust due to fitment issues.

Has anyone experienced this problem or have heard about anything like this before?

I'm thinking of just buying a universal N1 can and putting that on. I dunno, I feel like this really sucks. Maybe I will just go w/ a different manufacturer this time.

Later,Joe

[four]

s14joe,

join that GB for the buddy club exhaust..

$358 shipped, and theres no muffler for you to worry about it..check it out on the GB sectoin of this forum

[s14joe]

Originally Posted by four

s14joe,

join that GB for the buddy club exhaust..

$358 shipped, and theres no muffler for you to worry about it..check it out on the GB sectoin of this forum

bro, If I had the cash I would do it right now. i have been out of work for 2 1/2 weeks and the funds are dry. Believe me I would love to get in on a group buy.

[four]

i understand what ur saying..its just i read you say "Now I'm in the market for a new exaust"

good luck man

[Dream240]

s14joe,

Well, I have an Apexi N1 dual and as far as fitment issues I haven't had any. BUT when I was mounting it up, I did have to tweak and bend the exhaust pipe and the header pipes at little to get them to line up. It's been on my car for about 2 years now and no problems as far as blowing the muffler. What you could do is just go on eBay and get a N1 muffler for like 25 bucks, and then take it to an exhuast shop and have them swap out your bad one. Probably cost you 50 bucks all together. Worth a try. That's the best thign I can think of. Also as far as fitment issues, did you check you tranny and engine mounts for excessive wear? If they are bad then you tranny is sagging and will also cause your driveshaft to sag thus rubbing the resonator. I had brand new OEM mounts BEFORE I put my exhaust in so I never had any rubbing problems. Check it out.

Good luck.

[driftz240sx]

My n1 is a VERY close fit, about 1/2 inch in between the resonator and driveshaft. I've had it for about 3 months also and i haven't had any problems with mine. It sucks that apexi wont help you out.

[Ranger_Man]

it seems that with the apex N1 singles that one of two problems develop. either it hits the drive shaft or it hits the seam weld at the rear of the car. in my case it hits the seam weld.

does your exhaust rattle while accelerating/reving or only when you hit bumps? if it is only when you go over bumps you might want to try this before you go out and spend another 350+ dollars. start up your car and let the exhaust warm up completely, maybe driving it for a while. then park it, put on oven mits, grab the tip of the exhaust, and then shake the hell out of it to try to pin point the rattle. since you adjusted the hangers the exhaust may be hitting the frame or something else.

i severely doubt that your muffler went bad from heating up the exhaust hangers. i will bet you anything that mineke was just trying to rip off "another stupid ricer."

[BSeay]

It's threads like this that make me glad i paid a little more for my HKS hi-power... Sorry to hear about that man. IF you're in the market i would suggest an HKS hi-power 80mm. But good luck with that apexi.

[S14DB]

Some cat-backs can affect Backpressure-EGR systems. They work off the exhaust pressure to work and when the pressure is droped with a cat-back they don't operate properly.

My 5zigen fireball keeps cracking at the resonator due to the small suport brakets. I was looking at going to the n1 or GT spec and now I don't know.

[Dream240]

Originally Posted by S14DB

Some cat-backs can affect Backpressure-EGR systems. They work off the exhaust pressure to work and when the pressure is droped with a cat-back they don't operate properly.

My 5zigen fireball keeps cracking at the resonator due to the small suport brakets. I was looking at going to the n1 or GT spec and now I don't know.

By cracking you mean little backfire noises right? My N1 does a cool backfire popping noise when I slow down and the revs get to about 1250. I'm sure this is caused by what you explained but my car runs great, no problems. Sounds cool though, REALLY loud when the silencers are off!

[S14DB]

NO, I mean breaking in half. It stoped gurgling when I got the header.

[drift into a curb]

I don't get what you mean by blown. So something cracked and is rattling around in the exhaust? I would take it off and shake it around to see if you have anything in there that is rattling because I doubt an exhaust would be "shot" unless it had a hole in it. I've had 5 different brand mufflers and never really had a problem with my Apex GT Spec other than ground clearance. Now I have an Altair and the piping rubs the subframe periodically, but nothing that I couldn't fix with some rubber bushings.

[S14DB]

The problem with some cars failing emmisions is with the EGR not the Cat. Some EGR systems use the exhaust pressure to operate. When backpressure is decreased their effecency declines dramaticaly.

Please note this is for pressure based systems and does not apply to the 240sx.