berk cbe install help
 

My dealer installed mine, but the tech that did it sucked so bad they fired him the next week. I got a look under the muffler the other day as the driver side tip being a half inch lower finally got to me. The exhaust hanger wasn't even in the grommet. I fixed that and now its level.
What else could have gone wrong? I noticed two rubber isolators still bolted to my oem y pipe. Do those belong on my berk? What else should I look for?

Dealers can't do anything right. Have it put back on a lift a take a real close look at it, if the tech got fired cause he was that bad I would be very concerned.

I looked under the car and it looks and fits ok other than that one hanger. I just wondereed about the oem y pipe grommets. Do they belong on my berk?

The OEM Y pipe rubber bits are dampers for vibration. They do not transfer to the new exhaust.

I assume you're talking about these:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-F...2023.04.27.jpg

Yep! Thanks, all the hangers are now in the grommets and everything looks bolted up ok, I just saw those still on the oem and wondered.

Yeah, Nissan really did everything they could to make the stock exhaust silent. :icon17:

It's really hard to screw up a CBE install, especially on the Z which is such an easy install. As long as the bolts are gutentight and the hangers are hooked up you're all good. :tup:

Here is what I did to fix the same issue when installing my Berk.

http://www.the370z.com/intake-exhaus...reviews-4.html

Mine is pretty close to "on" after fixing that grommet that the lazy tech did not insert the hanger into. I have seen show-room new Z's that are "more crooked" than my Berk. It looks good, although it protrudes past the bumper just a tad. Nothing ugly. I guess that is the happy medium Berk decided on so as to please the people who got upset about flush, and then those who complained about soot on the bumper.

Okay, it came loose again. Not enough of the hanger by the driver's side on the muffler is going through the braket, and it's vibrating/sliding off. Hanger doesn't look long enough/its sloped angle is sliding it back out.

Should I start by loosening the 4 bolts that hold the muffler section to the X-pipe section and try to re-position/twist it? Will this mess up the gasket seal or otherwise be just plain pointless? Should I begin bending things?

Just a heads up, after a year of being on the car my berk exhaust settled lower and started vibrating on the center cross bar. I had the hangers removed and rewelded so it sits higher now. Berk is a great exhaust, but does have some consistency issues.

I just unbolted the driver side hanger and moved it about 1" toward the center of the car. That link has pics that should show you what I did.

I don't plan on drilling any holes in my car.

Not sure where you got that from. I simply moved a bracket. You have to elongate a hole in the bracket. Yes, it is a modification but it's not a hole in the car.

So just drill out the sides of the 3 holes in the bracket and move it toward the bumper?

That might work.

http://i43.tinypic.com/21ozbdk.jpg

I agree they have a consistency issue. I was one of the first to get the cbe, I haven't had any major issues except the tips are crooked.

Berk says this hanger is different from the other hangers on pre '12 cars. They are making me a new hanger for my car. Fabbing it up for me. Can't beat that!

Good to hear that.

+1 for customer service from Berk.

Yep. Still, it looks like the slant that the muffler hanger goes in is the issue, as well as the different hanger. I took some black Permatex gasket-maker and coated the inside of the grommets, and the outside of the hanger of the muffler and inserted it into the grommet. This should in theory fuze the hanger and the grommet with a flexible bond that will last the life of both.

Alignment is good WHEN THE HANGER IS IN THE GROMMET.

This should solve my problem, and if it doesn't, Berk is fabbing another hanger for the left (driver) side, and will do so for the (pass) side if need be.

I think the permatex is the solution. The grommets are $7 a piece and I ordered 2 from Berk. Worse comes to worse, the muffler section can be removed from the car and the grommets cut/burned off when/if replacement is necessary. No sweat.

hmm that bracket does look different. My 2010 has brackets that look like this:
http://www.the370z.com/members/mandi...eplaceable.jpg

2 welded metal pieces forming the arm of the bracket instead of 1. I wonder why they changed it :icon14:

Well, it is what it is, I guess. My 370Z obviously weighs less than yours. The small amount of Permatex gasket-maker I added will not be enough to offset the extraneous metal contained in your car.

Hmm. I missed this post. My problem was with bracket #7.

Well, so much for using the Permatex. Fail. Am upgrading to Superglue. The angle that they made their exhaust hanger at just flat out sucks. It slides out of the factory rubber grommet because it's going in at such an angle, and every bump you hit tries to pull it out.

This is the reason I hate modding a car so much. The aftermarket doesn't ever really get it right, and you end up with band-aid after band-aid. Tempted to sell this Berk for a NISMO and be done with it. I bet I could find someone who would trade.