Restricted exhaust?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Dummy, Aug 13, 2022.

  1. Dummy

    Dummy Member

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    I have access to a car lift for the first time and I’m changing my oil. While it’s in the air I was making an inspection of the exhaust pipe and seen this squished area in the pic below. There’s no sign of impact and no crease. It almost seems that the depression is on purpose. Does yours have this or should I look at having it fixed? (2005)

     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    My guy at the exhaust shop would be heating that bad boy up squishing it back to round or as close as he can get it to immediately That's not a good situation it gets any worse it can get really bad you want to just have your exhaust guy heat the pipe up and squeeze it with a large set of pliers it should round out enough to be usable Don't know what happened doesn't really matter
     
  3. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Looks like the car drove over something it shouldn't of drove over... If your gas mileage is good and car has power at full throttle on the freeway there's still enough of an opening in the pipe to handle max exhaust flow. But if you have any issues with engine performance, this would be the first thing to fix.
     
  4. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    That pipe is damaged. If it was on my car I would fix it- the exhaust is tiny to begin with and crushing it in half restricts it a bunch.
    You could use a scantool to monitor ICE RPM and MAF reading while doing a full throttle 0-60 accel and report the max readings on both. That can be used to see how much the exhaust affects engine operation.

    The metal Toyota used is thinner than typical, but stainless steel is quite "red hard" and difficult to bend or straighten even when heated- esp when you have to work real close to the fuel tank.
     
  5. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    If you don't want to mess with heating and bending, you can get that entire section (from just in front of the resonator to the rear flange) for about 20 bucks from a salvage yard. They always cut out the cats (if they're still present) but leave the rear half. I have 4 or 5 of the 'rear half' sections in the shop.

    Another option would be to remove it, cut it and use a pipe expander to re-round it, then splice it back together.

    Or just cut out that 4-5 inch section and get a piece of 1.75" exhaust pipe that will fit perfectly over the OEM pipe and clamp it together. The 1.75 pipe is a snug fit, but even if it's not a perfect seal, there should be no noticeable noise difference.