Hello, I own a 2001 Pathfinder LE 3.5L 4x4 and recently the exhaust broke down completely (I live in the northeast and with the salt on the road apparently this happens a lot to nissan vehicles expecially). The exhaust tail pipe (resonance or something like that) where it connects to the mid piece which has the Muffler in it is broken. The thing was broken in the connector area so bad that they cant re-use either of it, I am told. I looked under it when they showed me and it seems about right. So they want to replace the muffler part which comes down from both catylytic convertors and the tail pipe.
Nissan dealer gave me a quote of about $1000 (including labour) - Not sure about the warranty, I think 2 years on muffler and 1 year on other parts. MIDAS gave me a quote of about $700 - Life time Warranty on Muffler, 1 year on other parts. Local mechanic gave me a quote of about $600 (including parts and labour) - They claim that they can give me a life time warranty on these parts, in writing.
I am not sure if I would be able to find these parts somewhere online and buy them and ask my mechanic to put it in which might save me a lot of money. I spent almost 2 days searching the web but I cant find these particular parts in the web. Any ideas on where I can find them and what would be the approximate costs for them.
Also, is it worth for me to do this research and wasting time or the price quoted by the local mechnic of $600 fair?. Can anyone give me any pointers.
Thanks for your help With Regards Andy Thurai