So I'm driving home from work today and notice a weird sound coming from under my car. At first I thought it was related to the flywheel as it sounded very similar to the sound some of the lightweight flywheels make (cement mixer type sound). Funny thing is I would only get the sound around 2000 RPM and only as the needle was coming down. Could not duplicate the sound when the engine was up revving or held at 2000 RPM.

I decide to take my car over to Z Car Garage and see if Rob can help me isolate the noise. We put the car on the lift and he gets out the stethoscope as I sit in the car and rev. Sure enough the sound is coming from the cats. We drop the cats and a large chuck of catalyst falls out (pics below).

I've had my cats on since Oct (about 10K miles) and thought I had avoided the recent trend of RT cats falling apart. But it appears I'm just another victim. Calling RT first thing Monday morning to see what they can do to remedy the situation.

I don't know how long I've been running these things like this. The noise started suddenly today and was quite loud. I had also been noticing what sounded like very minor pinging at around 5000 RPM. I had my A/F checked a few times and even had Tadashi at Technosquare richen my mixture but the noise was still there. I now know the cause.

(5 pics to follow)

Good cat (passenger side)

 

Bad cat (drivers side)

 

Chunk that fell out of the cat (about 4" long)

 

One end of the chunk

 

The other end (must have been like this a while. The thing is literally fused together.)

 

Did your CEL come on? I'm starting to suspect that is what is wrong with my car, and it's been at the dealership for 2 weeks, and they can't seem to figure it out!

 

So is RT going to warranty their cats and figure out the flaw?

 

so far the response i get from RT is that if they can't prove it is their fault, then it's not their fault

 

Then If they can't prove it? Don't buy it Simple right?

 

that is not a serious answer after all the failures.

They(RT) should prove it's not their fault, not the otherway around.

 

yes, it is very simple. they are selling a product that may be of questionable quality. consumers don't buy it. they either address the issue or lose customer income because we buy a competitor's product. No fuss. No muss. I don't like businesses with snotty attitudes for some reason.

 

RT does stand behind their products to some extent. They will send you another set assuming it is not evident that it was the buyers fault. (IE bad install, too much nos, etc) I believe they will do this if it occures within a year of purchase. RT offers no $ refunds. You are the 11th person I know of to have problems with RT. Those that have had problems had them on for 3K to 10K miles. The only problem is that many guys are having problems and don't even know it. It looks like you went a while with this problem also.

I purchased mine from Performance Nissan and they stand behind everything they sell. IMO they are one of the best vendors we have for the Z.

 

Performance Nissan is Great But not RT

 

richochet- Never had a CEL with the RT's.

I purchased mine from Performance as well and agree Jeff and Jason are great guys. But this is not their problem it is Random's problem. And I'm not sure how to respond to ***** comments on RT's take. Not their problem? Their cats are falling apart, how is that not their problem? Hopefully the Performance guys along with the rest of us can send some feedback to RT and let them know that they are starting to get a bad reputation in the 350 community.

 

The thing is... RT does not let their vendors handle warranty issues, you have to deal direct with RT.

I went through this recently... when I first talked to RT about my damaged cats, they told me it was my fault for having forced induction... they said I must be supercharged or turbocharged....

when I said all I have in intake and headers they said something is wrong with my engine and is dumping gas on the cats which is then exploding... I said, if that's ture, then why are my OEM cats in perfect condition????

Anyway, it took me three months of talking to the guys at RT, but they did send me two new cats. They did tell me they would not warranty the second set if the something happened to them. I did not like the sound of that, so I sent the second set back to Performance Nissan for a refund.

I am very happy with Performance Nissan and how they stand behind what they sell.

Good luck failsafe...


PeteH

 

stock cats break down over time too... all cats will...

 

Yes, but not in the relatively short period of time that the R/T's are being reported by the members here.

 

an easy solution is to either decide on crawford or test pipes until RT solves its problems with its customers right....

 

or get Ultimates, which carry a 5 year warranty