Hello G37 community,

My apologies in advance if this is in the wrong section, but thanks in advance for your assistance. So I've had my 2012 G37x Sedan for a little over a year, and it has about 82,500 miles. Let me tell you I love this car. I love the handling, acceleration, looks, etc.

So, the car has been a bit louder than usual the last few months, and in the past week I knew something was wrong because it became insanely loud and my acceleration became much weaker. I took it to an Infiniti dealership and one of the problems they raised is "Mid Y Pipe is broken after the cat. Will need to replace pipe with hard ware and gaskets" Dealership is charging overall $845 to replace the Y pipe, gaskets, and labor. The part is (TUBE ASSY-EXHAUST, FRONT 20020-JK00B) for $617.49.

I am a n00b when it comes to most things related to auto repair other than swapping tires, and topping off fluids but I have a brother who's very skilled, and regularly fixes all of our cars. He has also successfully swapped engines/transmissions in our backyard. Would it be cheaper/better for me to order the part online and have him do it? He says he definitely can. I want it done right, and read that the OEM part has a heat shield that other parts may not have? Other option is to go to a muffler shop and have them do a custom Y pipe? I've been wanting to improve the performance/sound and not sure if this might be a good opportunity to do it. Thanks in advance everyone...

 

man , their bending you right over, no lube...find a reliable Y pipe on ebay or what not($100-$300+),theres a lot of decent ones out there... do some reviews, its a fairly easy job, gonna need some PB Blast spray lubricant, some ratchets and if you cant do it, Im sure itd be an easy job for your brother......, that's price is outrageous !!

 

Dealers will always work by the book, often charging the labor rate and part prices that would be better suited for warranty coverage (i.e. they rip off the warranty honorer). Hence, they will really quote something exorbitant.

You can get an OEM-equivalent on RockAuto between $100-150 along with any hardware shipped to your door. If you are planning to do custom work after the Y-pipe that can take a 3-inch outlet, a "performance" oriented Y-pipe from ISR, Megan Racing, etc can be used as well (though it will be raspy if you don't have the flanges/diameter matched up.

It should not take more than 1 hour of labor to install the Y-pipe, so I would anticipate no more than $300 with parts and labor included.

 

There's a couple generic ones that will work well for about 120 shipped. I wouldn't expect gains but it will fix the problem. The Beluga and Megan racing pipes are 150-180 shipped. Take it to a muffler shop, it shouldn't be more than 80-100 for labor at a decent place.