I know I am not the first Z to have this problem but I thought I would post so I could be added to the list of RT failures. I beleive I am the 10th Z on the list not including some of the guys that kept them and hollowed them out.

They were on my car for 6 months, roughly 3K miles. Although the customer service was good at RT, (and excellent on the part of Performance Nissan) I chose to go with the Crawford cats as I have been told they have had zero failures. Granted they do not flow quite as much as the RT's... Crawford's cats fit better, sound better and are more reliable.

 

For what it's worth RT Cats are widely known as a poor product on maxima.org. Many people have had similiar problems with them as you guys are having.

 

What lead you to think they were blown out?

 

The car had a tremendous amount of power loss. At first we didn't know what it was? After eliminating several other possibilities we checked the cats... Sure enough they were toast.

 

Are there any other signs to look for ? Sound , Rattling

 

I bought my cats 6 months ago. Since then RT has corrected the rattling problem. I can't remember which side but it made the exhaust hang lower and it hit the rear cross member. I was sick of the rattling, so I took off the brace which made the car handle worse. I just couldn't stand the noise...

My engine temps were hotter than normal and the car was dead off the line. The exhaust was slightly louder but I think I was getting used to it. There also seemed to be some small black debris coming out of the exhaust that I had not seen prior. I can't think of any other signs that I had...

I have been told that nissan motors are hard on H/F cats. When I had my MKIV supra, the best cats to buy were RT. I had the opportunity to put new RT cats on this car but chose Crawford after this experience.

 

Could possibly be since newer cars are very clean and I believe the VQ is an ULEV. Is it possible that the stock cats are designed to run hotter (therefore burning off more crap) than whatever standard cores RT uses?

 

RT cats have been reported to cause the engine to run lean. A lean Air / Fuel ratio can cause the engine to run hot and possibility "burn out" the cats.


DaveO

 

sounds like you already have the crawfords installed...how was installation and how bout a performance review..thanks

 

My crawfords have not been installed but I have seen them on several cars and have ridden in a couple cars that have them.

There was no rattle with the cross member which I (and many others) had with the RT cats. There was no raspy sound between 2500-3200 rpm. It only sounded slighty deeper than the stock cats.

As far as a performance comparision, I will let you know after I have them installed. Althought the RT cats flow more, I beleive the difference in feel will be slight if at all.