MagnaFlow Ceramic Catalytic Converter - Stainless Steel - Direct Fit

Video Transcript for MagnaFlow Ceramic Catalytic Converter Installation - 2007 Toyota Prius

Today on our 2007 Toyota Prius, we'll be installing the MagnaFlow Ceramic Catalytic Converter Direct Fit, part number MF49752. Now to begin our install, we'll first locate the catalytic converters and the attachment points. We have several. We have an O2 sensor that will have to be removed. We'll have to cut our pipe here behind the second catalytic converter and we'll have to disconnect it from the manifold. At the manifold, it's secured with two spring bolts, one on each side.

I'm going to go ahead and start by removing the spring bolts. Note, over time these bolts tend to be very rusty, so you might want to spray with some spray lubricant. You can then go ahead and remove the bolts. Here's the passenger side spring bolt and we'll set that aside for re-installation later. I'll repeat the same process on the driver's side spring bolt. Next, we're going to go ahead and remove the O2 sensor.

Using an open ended wrench, we can go ahead and remove it by just turning it out of the weld nut built into the exhaust. Note, as I was removing the O2 sensor, I also counted the revolutions of how many times we turned it out, so that we can prepare our wire when we go to thread it back in to the new exhaust. Next we need to cut the pipe. We're going to go ahead and cut it close to the converter, because we can always remove some more later if we need to. To cut it, you could use a hacksaw, saws all or I prefer to use a chain cutter. If you don't have access to a chain cutter, you could potentially rent one from your local auto parts store.

Now once I get it most of the way free, I might just have to wiggle it to break off the rest. Once we have it free, we can go ahead and pull it down and out, set it aside and prepare to install the new exhaust. Next, I'm going to go ahead and take the new Direct Fit catalytic converter and hold it up in place. This will give us an idea of our length and to see if we need to trim any more off our exhaust pipe. Holding it in place, I'm going to go ahead and take another half inch off of the exhaust pipe to get a better fit. I'll go back to my chain cutter and just repeat the same process we did when we cut it originally.

Now to make room for the new catalytic converter, we need to move the exhaust back and since I can't push it back far enough while it's still attached to the rubber isolators, we're going to go ahead and remove them, essentially taking the second half, or rear half, of our exhaust down. We've got two rubber isolators here and to take them down, we're going to go ahead and spray them, just a spray lubricant, and then use our pry bar or pliers to remove them. Now we've got a metal strap here that's going to hold the weight, so it's okay. If we didn't, we'd put a safety strap underneath to help support the weight of the exhaust. Now we can move back by the muffler. We've got two additional rubber isolators that will need to be removed. Here at the front of the muffler we have one and one at the back of the muffler. Again, once we remove them, we're just going to allow the exhaust to sit on the rear axle. Now whether we take the isolator off of the metal hanger on the muffler or the frame, it doesn't matter, whichever one is easier. Now that we've got our exhaust down, we can go ahead and slide it back, making room for the new converter. Now before we attempt to install the new converter, we've got them both here side by side. If we look at the flanges on the two, we'll notice that the old converter has more of a coned flange than the new one, so we're going to have to replace the bolt. We're going with a longer bolt than the original and we'll just reuse the spring. This is a ten millimeter with a 1.25 thread, 75 millimeters long. We're now ready to go ahead and install the new converter. Now before you install your new catalytic converter, I recommend to take a look at the manifold gasket here between the converter and the manifold. We'll check it and make sure it's not frayed, burnt through or broken. This one looks pretty good, so we're just going to go ahead and reuse it and we're ready to install the new catalytic converter. The new converter will just fit up where we had removed the old converter and we'll reinstall the spring bolts to hold it in place. You can make it a little easier on yourself if you have an extra set of hands to help hold the back while you reinstall the spring bolts. Now as we install our hardware, we're just going to get one side started, then get the other side started. As we tighten them down, we want to make sure one, we tighten them down evenly and two, that we don't completely compress the spring. There needs to be some movement to allow the exhaust to flex as the engine moves. Now once I've got the spring bolts mostly tightened down but not a hundred percent, we'll go ahead and take the clamp provided with our install kit and just slide it on out of the way for now. Now we're ready to go ahead and reattach the old exhaust with the new converter. It's a good idea to get an extra set of hands to help you shift the exhaust back into position. Now to make it easier to get my exhaust hangers back on, we're going to go ahead and do that now before we tighten up our clamp. It will also help to ensure that we get our exhaust repositioned correctly by lining up the hangers with the length that our exhaust will go into the converter. Now once we have our exhaust hangers reinstalled, we'll go ahead and make sure they're straight up and down, just like they we're when we took them off. Now once I'm positioned correctly, I can go ahead and tighten down the clamp. Now with my clamp tight, I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the O2 sensor. We're going to go ahead and twist it back up so that once we install it into the exhaust, our wire will be back straight. Now once we have it installed hand tight, I'm going to use my wrench to tighten it down, being careful not to over tighten it. It's got a nice hold on it, we'll turn the wire up, keep it away from the ground and then we can go ahead and complete tightening down our spring bolts. Here's what our spring bolt will look like once it's tightened down. As you can see, the coils aren't quite touching, but it is tightened down. That will do it for the install of the MagnaFlow Ceramic Catalytic Converter Direct Fit, part number MF49752 on our 2007 Toyota Prius. .