2012 Nissan Altima 2.5 mod gone wrong!

Welcome back to the blog!

Here comes my first mod that I did to my 2012 Nissan Altima and it was of course what every other newbie does to his/her car and which is the cat-back swap. Before going in to the details, let me tell you that it was 2.5 litre in-line 4 cylinder engine with 175 rated HP. It was taking all exhaust inputs from exhaust manifold into single catalytic converter and after wards it was Y-exhaust meaning it was having dual cat-backs, very rare for 4-cylinder car right 😎? Here is the diagram for the exhaust system of 2012 Nissan Altima.

This exhaust setup is good enough for better mileage and probably good for emissions as well (to trick someone 😁) but its horrible when it comes to making good sound note from the engine, coupled with the CVT transmission, the sound note even with the best of the best exhaust systems sounds horribly low and bad to the ears 😞

Here is the whole process of swapping cat-back on my Altima. First of all the choice of cat-back, it was Magnaflow straight through 4' street series cat-back. Since it was only cat-back, custom piping had to be done to get it installed. Here is the cat-back picture.

First and foremost, the car was put on rails for loosening the bolts of down-piping to release the cat-backs from its hinges and mid-pipe hook. This part is easy, just loosening of bolts. 

Check out the stock exhaust tips! 

The car on the assembly line, since it was pretty local shop. The assembly line is not a professional one. The stock exhaust removed from the car. The custom down-pipe and cat-back itself can be seen.

Half way through the replacement...! tick tok tick tok...

woala..! after the cat-back installation and test run. Coming to the title of the post, you'd be wondering where it went wrong. In reality, the whole idea was a disaster. There was absolutely no gain in the car power, at least nothing that I felt 😏. It sounded like a hippo who hasn't eaten in ages 😒 and the hum in the cabin was beyond what my mind could  withstand 👽. I kept the mod on for approximately six months after which I felt my hearing starting to lose its sanity.

Below is the eye-to-eye comparison of before and after.

Let me have your thoughts about this and let me know your experiences about cat-back mod. 

See you next time around, till then, xplora_out!

Nissan Altima 2012

Welcome back to the blog!

Today we are going to show you probably one the best sedans of its time. When Nissan dropped the Altima's 4th generation in the USA, it grasped its competitors by neck and showed them that this is the force that is to be reckoned with. Although 4th Gen Altima shared a lot of design aesthetics from 3rd Gen but it was real head turned when it came to the practicality of the car.

Even today there are some very good deals available on the 4th gen Altima, especially in gulf countries. This model is particularly famous because of good value for money and reliability, parts availability and best of all easy repair. As of today, 2009-2011 models are available as cheap as $2500 whereas the facelifted version costs approx. $5000.

 

The particular variant that I owned and about which we will talk is 2012 facelifted model. The car had 2.5 liter in-line 4 cylinder coupled to CVT transmission. It was basic spec car primarily known in USA as SR variant. The car was bone stock before it I became its owner. The car had 106k KM on the meter and it was throughout driven without any accident.

The car was one of the most practical sedans that I have owned so far, powerful engine, fairly good leg room, loaded with all basic features like power seats/mirrors/windows/boot liftgate, keyless entry, push start engine, dual climate control along with rear seat air condition, cruise control and Bluetooth connectivity. The car was outright luxurious enough to compete with the likes of Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota Avalon, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, Mazda 6, Chevrolet Impala, Ford Fusion and other similar cars.

The car clocked 200km/h without any hick up with non-stop spree of exhaust gases gushing out of its dual cat-back exhaust. Although it used to come with a spoiler but this particular variant was without spoiler which made it even more less resistant to drag.

Let me have your thoughts on this car in the comment section below.

Thumbs up if you like it, I'll see you around in next post!