Can I use aftermarket Cats or stick with OEM?

Dealer just confirmed that my front catalytic converter is bad. CEL on, Performance has diminish and fuel economy has went down, definitely has some sort of exhaust smell. They recommended and quoted over $4K to replace both pipes and said it would take awhile for the parts to come in. Are there any aftermarket brands I could use without dealing w/ CEL? So far I looked at Walker. Trying to decide what I should do before I shell out big $$$$. Obviously OEM seems the best aside from the cost.

 

I've heard a fair amount of people going with Magnaflow, but it still seems to be hit or miss with the CEL. Unfortunately I think the only way to be sure it will be resolved is OEM. The other option would be long tube headers which will delete the front cats, but then you have to modify a bit to help the front 02 sensor pick up what it is supposed to without throwing a CEL. I ended up doing that on my Nissan Titan when the front cat went bad and it was about half the cost.

 

OEM cats or talk to Keith @dirtydeeds . The 2nd gen trucks may be a little more forgiving with cat deletion.

 

You didn't mention this but do you live in a state or city that requires routine smog testing? If so, you may be forced to go with the OE cats. Those of us in CA are forced to stick with OE cats, no after-market or cat deletion allowed here.

 

Luckily my state doesn’t require it. I just don’t want to deal with a CEL.

 

I had a supercharged Tacoma with the 4.0 v6 engine and I sold my oem cats to the shop that helped with my custom exhaust. About 2 years ago I sold the tacoma but I pulled the supercharger and custom exhaust. I bought AP/Eastern cat converters from Rock Auto so I could return my exhaust to stock to sell the truck. Up to this day no cell and cats seem to be flawless - I still see my old truck and the guy who bought it is a friend.

 

One of my driver side cat honeycombs broke apart a couple of years back on my 2007 Limited so I had to replace the side. I read all of the stories about aftermarket cats triggering CELs but for 1/5th the cost of OEM I figured I would give it a shot since I had 189k on the truck. I replaced the side with the direct fit Walker part. I've now driven it for 25 months and 25k miles with no CEL or any other problems. It was really easy to remove the old pipe and cats and bolt up the new one, took me less than an hour total. I did not replace the oxygen sensors and they are still working fine.

 

Thanks for the suggestions and sharing experiences. Even if I do decide to go with OEM, it appears that I will have to wait for months according to the dealer because the parts are backordered. I’ve been on different Toyota parts websites, some say backordered while others have that’s in stock. One website I checked was Toyota parts deal. Shows the price of the two exhaust pipes that includes the converters, the gaskets, converter protector, and I also plan to replace the muffler and tailpipe. Basically everything in the diagram below. I’m not just considering OEM, I also looked at Magnaflow and Walker cats (better pricing for sure), still weighing in my options and how I want my exhaust to sound. Everything is bone stock and I never really been into loud exhausts although some do sound good.

 

Your definitely doing your shopping homework. As most will say go oem especially if you’re keeping your truck for the long haul. Once you get your cat situation figured out look into dirty deeds exhaust which is the most popular on this site. Good luck sourcing cats OP!!

 

If it’s just the primary cats that are bad, you could try cutting out the rear cats and replace them with pipe and then have the rear cats welded in the location of the primaries. I’ve heard of people using only the rear cats in custom midpipes and not getting any CELs. I’ve also heard the rears don’t have the same amount of precious metals or reduce the emissions as much as the primaries, but as long as there’s no code right?