I bought a TRD cat-back dual outlet system months ago and it's still sitting in the box. It's part number 00602-17400-019 and was listed from the place I got it from as fitting 2003-05 Runners. The paperwork inside says it fits 2003-2004 Runners, but no mention of 05s or anything about X-REAS compatibility. I have an 05 Limited V8 with X-REAS and there always seems to be confusion about which TRD system will fit my vehicle perfectly with the spare still in place, which will fit it sort-of (maybe some of the brackets don't match up) and which ones will fit, but gotta lose the spare. I've followed the discussions and still don't know if the system I bought will fit perfectly with the spare in place. My suspicion is that it will fit, but not with the spare in place because of the X-REAS system.

So here's the wild ass question--The TRD system isn't a true dual exhaust. It's a dual outlet (one behind each tire) and the piping that exits on the driver's side is the one that there'll be problems with fitting around the spare, so what would happen if I just blocked off that pipe going to the driver rear and just used the outlet exiting behind the passenger rear? The pipe comes out as a single pipe from the rear resonator, then goes up and over the rear axle splitting into a Y just behind the axle. That's where the passenger side and the driver side pipes diverge. The driver's side could be blocked right there using the flange. Wouldn't it then be fairly close to the arrangement of a MagnaFlow? Probably wouldn't be as free-flowing as the dual outlet, but shouldn't be any worse than the stock setup. Would still have a nice looking side exit pipe behind the passenger wheel.

If it doesn't fit, I supposed another option would be to have a muffler place make a custom section of pipe to get around the X-REAS lines and the spare and have the nice TRD outlet welded onto the custom section. Then I'd have both the side outlets in place. I figure the HP gains from any system aren't that much and I was mostly interested in a nice looking exhaust. Any gains in HP or grunty V8 sound would be appreciated, but optional.

It's been a while since I peeked inside that big ol' box, so I may totally be talking out my ass and what I'm proposing may not even be possible. I did dig out the paperwork, installation instructions, etc and while I'm looking at the fairly good pics in the instructions, it looks like the driver's side pipe comes up and over the rear axle with the passenger side pipe, then makes a sharp bend to head over towards the driver's side. The pics show it hanging fairly low and passing close to the back side of the differential, just above the midline of the differential and axles. Looks like there's lots of space between it and the spare and it goes over to exit behind the driver's rear wheel. A pic from the back shows that pipe hanging down a little lower than the spare. My spare seems to ride fairly high and isn't really visible too much from the back.

You know, I should just try to install the damned thing and see, but I'll be pretty pissed if it doesn't fit. Definitely no clear consensus on these exhausts.