Project Toyota Tundra Part 5: Testing TRD’s Warranty Friendly Exhaust System

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The new hanger mount with the rubber isolator ready for the new tailpipe.

We were worried that the truck might actually be too loud when looking at the mufflers and seeing how there were no additional resonators or sub mufflers.  From the mufflers the tubes are routed to either side of the bed to nice looking polished stainless steel tips embossed with the TRD logo.  The flanges are all high quality OEM style stamped parts that have raised edges for stiffness.  They are also 100% stainless and are fitted so you can use OEM style durable leak free doughnut gaskets.

The exhaust is pretty heavy and large so it helps to have another set of hands to hold things in place while starting the nuts.

The exhaust hangers are all fully stainless and are headed like OEM so they won’t fall out of the rubber hangers.  Since the twin perforated core mufflers are wider than the big single muffler, the exhaust comes with a new OEM style heat shield that is wider and flatter than the stock part to protect the floor, a really nice OEM like detail.  On the left side of the truck, the new tailpipe comes with an OEM style hanger bracket and isolator that bolts to existing holes in the chassis.  There is even a special slot in the bracket to help align it in the proper place when the bolt is tightened.  Now that is OEM level engineering! The exhaust comes with all bolts, hardware and gaskets in a parts kit to make everything a snap.  There are also some complete and easy to understand instructions that we didn’t bother to read much.

The TRD system is a true dual system all the way from the cats on back.

The fit of the exhaust , the ease of routing it and the completeness of the kit made installation a snap.  The exhaust is pretty heavy so it helps to have a buddy help you.  It took us only about 15 minutes to install everything.  So far we have been very impressed with the quality and ease of installation of TRD and Genuine Toyota accessories on our project.  It’s been a refreshing change of pace from your typical aftermarket beat to fit stuff that we sometimes experience.

The stamped flanges are stiffer and seal better than flat flanges.  The flanges are also designed to use OEM like doughnut gaskets which should be pretty leak free.  No el cheapo slip fits which are typical of aftermarket truck exhaust systems.