So I'm going to show you how to replace a muffler on a Toyota Tacoma in just a second.
But first, I want to see how exactly a muffler works.
So we're going to open this up.
This is the part that goes up to the engine, and then this is the part that decreases the
sound – the volume of the exhaust.
So something in here is muffling the exhaust, and then the rest of the fumes go out the
end.
So I couldn't cut it all the way open.
There are two bands of metal right here holding it all intact and I ran out of SawZall blades.
This is where the exhaust comes in from the engine, and it goes through this tube into
this first chamber.
And now I imagine, I'm not an exhaust expert, but the sound echos around inside of this
chamber and then it can go out some of these other tubes like this one, and then back into
this chamber through another tube.
And so the sound stays in here, echoing around itself while the fumes and the exhaust can
eventually end up going out of this hole and all the way out the back of the truck.
So for the muffler, I did open this section right here and it looks like it's just full
of more air.
So it's just one more chamber inside of the muffler itself.
But still, pretty cool and pretty inexpensive for what it accomplishes.
Now that that's over, let's get started with the actual repair.
[Intro]
So my truck's had a problem for a while with the muffler.
The muffler's been slowly going out more and more, burning a hole through the bed of my
truck.
I'll show you.
So this right here, we have the bed-liner here and then another layer of bed-liner underneath.
This truck is pretty old – it's a 1998.
But the muffler has been letting exhaust come up through the bed of the truck and rusting
away the metal.
But this isn't how a truck should look.
Now normally I wouldn't really care.
The truck does sound a little bit louder than most.
I'll let you listen to that now.
And all the exhaust fumes are coming up through this hole right now.
Since the garage door is closed, I'm going to go turn it off.
But the problem is there is a lot of heat coming up through that hole as well, since
exhaust is hot.
It's literally burning gas fumes.
So normally I've put this slab of granite over the top of the hole to kind of keep the
heat below the truck, but this weekend I have to pack a bunch of boxes, and boxes...cardboard,
catches fire.
So I have to fix this problem before the weekend.
Luckily I do have the replacement muffler right here and it does seem like a pretty
easy fix.
I have a clamp.
Basically I just have to cut off the old muffler, slip this over the top of it, and then clamp
this down tight on the old pipe.
There are a couple of hangers on this new muffler right here, right here, and another
one right there.
And these go inside of a little rubber piece which I'll show you right now.
The new tail pipe hanger would just slip up through this same little hole in the rubber
piece
What I'm going to use to cut the tail pipe off with is a skill saw, so it's got a fine
metal blade on it right now that can cut through metal.
This section right here you can see how it flexes up and out.
This is what fits over the other tailpipe.
So we have about this much room to work with, so the cut doesn't need to be exact, but I
do want to leave as much metal as possible intact on the old tailpipe so that I don't
need to add anything later.
And this is the part that we're going to be cutting.
So right here we just have the muffler and then the tailpipe goes out the back of the
truck.
And I'm going to cut it...we have this little bracket right here along this side, but I'm
going to cut it as close to the muffler body as possible so I have all of this extra pipe
to work with.
I think I might need to re-cut it about here just so it fits.
But just to err on the side of safety I'm going to cut it pretty deep.
Back down on the rest of this pipe, we've got the catalytic converter over here, and
then another bracket.
But I shouldn't have to touch these because this pipe will just fit right into the new
muffler down here.
Now we are on the underside of the truck and here are the two little rubber things supporting
the muffler.
Found it easiest if I just grab the bottom of the rubber with this and press on the top
of this metal thing with the other end of this.
Alright, the muffler is now dropped out from underneath, and the last part we have left
is this one.
So basically I'm going to grab the bottom of the rubber with this and press the metal
with the other side of these pliers.
So getting this out would have been a lot easier if I would have dropped the spare tire
out from underneath the truck.
This is what it sounds like with no muffler at all.
Everything is just coming out of that one little pipe right there.
Now it's time to attach the new one...after I turn the truck off again.
Whoever's idea it was to stick an unremovable sticker on a super hot tailpipe...it's pretty
ridiculous.
So it turns out we have a problem.
What I thought was the little expansion thing at the bottom of the tailpipe, which is this
guy right here, see how it like widens up a little bit to fit over another piece of
pipe?
I was wrong that it was going to fit over the stock pipe from the truck.
What this is meant for, this is what I think anyway, there's supposed to be a piece of
pipe that sits down in the middle and fits all the way down in there.
I'm probably going to have to hammer that in because it fits pretty tight, and then
this stops it from going all the way in.
And then the other piece of pipe slips over the top of this.
And then I have the two clamps on the end that I'll show you in a second that clamp
down on either side of the pipe to keep the exhaust from coming out.
I did drop the spare tire down a little bit.
You go in through a little hole right here underneath the tailgate, and then you can
turn a little knob and that drops the tire down.
Kind of a pain.
I think my bumper's bent a little bit so the hole's not there anymore.
That was a pain.
But right now, since the tire can sway a little bit, I should have enough room to slip the
new exhaust pipe in without too many problems.
So now I have this little pipe inside of the muffler.
This pipe right here is a 2 and 1/8 inner diameter.
I'll try to link these down in the video description, if not, I'm sure you can try and get them
at a local hardware store.
And then I have the clamp right here that's going to make sure everything sits tight.
I decided to put my bolts on the top because this is the part that's going to be resting
up underneath the truck bed and this is the part that's going down to the ground, and
so the less parts hanging down means less things to connect with rocks and stuff when
I'm going off-road.
Also since I didn't factor in that the pipe wasn't going to fit inside of the other pipe,
now I have to re-cut the stock pipe on my truck so it's a little bit shorter and it'll
fit over that connection.
So what I've done right now is I've taken the new tailpipe, stuck it up inside this
bracket so I know exactly where it needs to sit on this end.
And then I can just lift this up until it touches this other pipe right here and see
where I need to cut it so it will slip on over that other end.
So according to this, when I lift it up I'm going to want the new cut, since it's fitting
inside, about here.
And that should work.
Nailed it.
Now I have pulled this exhaust away from that rubber on the end so that I can line up this
tailpipe a little easier.
Hopefully it will slide in easy enough.
It's so close.
So what I'm doing right now is just bending the lip of this pipe a tiny bit all the way
around the outside, hoping to just get it wide enough to start slipping that pipe inside.
So I bent this pipe in just a tiny bit, and this pipe out just a tiny bit so now they're
lined up pretty tight.
And now I just need to pound this in the rest of the way.
If I get a rubber mallet on the end of this it should go in well enough, as long as I
pound on the seam.
Alright, that's about as good as we're going to get.
So I got that by twisting the muffler back and forth and just wedging it super tight
inside of this pipe.
So I'll put another clamp here in a second.
Got both the rubber brackets back in so there's just like one little curve right here and
then it's straight for a while and then it curves back down.
Basically I took these all the way off, put this through it and then snapped it over the
top of it with that rubber mallet just hitting the rubber right here.
And that put the metal tube back through the rubber hole.
Kind of the same deal on this one.
Since the bottom of the truck is down here, I don't want these bolts sticking out catching
on rocks and stuff as I'm driving around.
So I'll put this clamp with the bolts facing up.
Alright, so let's see what it sounds like really quick.
Now all the exhaust is coming out here.
Got this rubber thing connected.
No sounds coming from this hole, that's great, or from the muffler itself.
Pretty excited about that.
Now since we're in a garage, I'm going to go ahead and turn my truck off.
So it looks like everything went smoothly on my end.
The muffler's now in place, the truck is much quieter and now I can transport boxes without
them catching on fire.
So let's say you have a small hole in your muffler and you don't want to replace the
whole thing.
So first of all, a shop quoted me about $230 to replace this on my truck.
My truck has 240,000 miles on it and I'm going to sell it in a couple months anyway, so I
didn't want to pay that much to have a shop do it and I knew that the part itself was
around $89 give or take, and then I could install it myself.
There's a little bit of extra parts, you know, I took clamps and stuff.
That put me right around $100.
Still saved quite a few dollars.
But if I just had a small hole in my tailpipe or even in the muffler body itself, there
is this heat tape that has kind of like...not like an epoxy...I'll link it down in the video
description below, but you can take it, put it on water, put it over the metal.
It's hard enough to sit over that tailpipe and even the heat won't disturb it.
So look into that if you have just a small hole because it will save you a lot of time
and money.
That tape is pretty cheap.
I'll link that in the video description.
So yeah, I hope this project helped you out a little bit, whether you're trying to replace
the muffler in your own truck, or you just like watching a process like this.
I thought it was a fun project myself.
Thanks a ton for watching.
Hit that subscribe button if you enjoy projects like this.
I plan on doing more and more on this channel, but we'll see how it goes.
Thanks a ton for watching and I'll see you around.