Exhaust gasket

[andrewclaus]

I found a leak at the exhaust pipe gasket between the manifold and CAT. I can get a Felpro version in stock at my local O'Reilly's a few blocks away, or at twice the price from the Toyota dealer a few miles away. Is anyone aware of an advantage with staying with OEM parts here? I replaced the rear gasket a couple of years ago and I'm pretty sure I used one from the dealer. Thanks.

The car is still going strong at 221K miles. I'll probably pick up radiator hoses too and do that job. I changed the antifreeze from Dexcool to Asian Red when I bought it at 150K miles, and just noticed a slight orange color to it, so I'll change that too.

[joatmon]

I would be surprised if the dealer gasket offered anything over the chain store gasket, except price.

[andrewclaus]

Thanks.

I did the job yesterday and the Felpro gasket worked fine. I replaced the spring bolts too. $45 in parts for the job. The repair took less time than finding the leak.

[andrewclaus]

Actually there was a difference in gaskets. The joint started leaking again after about a week, so I went down to the dealer and got one from them. It's obviously more of a spherical section:

But after installing it, I noticed the flanges are not parallel, and are almost touching at the top. So next job is a rear motor mount. Funny, there are no other symptoms.