alaskaty

My wife has a 2003 RX300 and I'm trying to get a little more separation between hers and the other 50,000 white RX's in Phoenix, AZ. I put 4300k HID's in her lows and fogs, I've got clear side markers for the front and back with chrome bulbs. I've got chrome bulbs for the rear blinkers...but that's it.

I polished her exhaust tip yesterday and it came out pretty good. The only problem is that it's not very impressive. From straight on it can hardly be seen, and it looks puny.
Here's what I'm thinking about doing to snazz it up:
1. Going to Wal-Mart/Pep Boys/Auto Zone to get a screw on tip
2. Going to a muffler shop to get a tip welded on
3. Getting a new muffler tip (ie Magnaflow) installed.

if this were my daily driver i would get a Magnaflow 14829, but i'm a little concerned she won't like the sound. Is there any drone/resonance in the cabin? I like the tip size but how do people feel about the appearance of the ss muffler

I've seen probably all the pics of magnaflow's installed on this site. But it seems that all the shots are dead on, or from the side where it's hard to get a feel for the complete package. If anyone can post pics of a Magnaflow 14829 installed that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Lexmex

I don't know of anyone having installed that particular muffler on an RX300.

Well, as long as you stay with the stock resonator, you might not notice as much noise with one of these mufflers. However, if it were me in your situation, I'd probably stick to adding just a muffler tip (welding it on) for the moment. A muffler tip was the first exhaust modification I did many years ago for the same reasons you mentioned above.

alaskaty

There's a couple trucks on this forum with that exhaust. My big concern is that there is no exhaust cutout so you see too much of the muffler. Thanks for the input though.
Jason

Lexmex

I am not sure if it were that particular number on the exhuast, but you're right that some have run Magnaflows. I use to run a more oval APC Intimidator 1021 muffler a few years back with a dual exhaust tip on the back and for that I had the exhaust shop put a cut out (actually still have it) so that the exhaust wouldn't burn the light up the bumper on the back. 1021 had a bit more pleasant sound for being a straight-thru/direct flow exhaust.

alaskaty

by cutout do you mean an exhaust cutout - so the hot gas left before the muffler, or do you mean a bumper cutout so the tip sat in a semicircular area removed from the bumper cover?

I guess that's my wife's biggest concern is that the whole muffler is exposed so it looks just like every other teenager's car nowadays. As opposed to say an FX35 that has a nice deep bumper cutout to so just the tips are exposed.

alaskaty

This is a member's truck's Magnaflow setup. I think it looks really good, especially how close he got the tip to the body. My only question: is it too close? Will the heat from the exhaust damage the body?





Also, is it possible to paint the stainless steel black with a heat resistant paint. I'd leave the tip SS, but paint the muffler. Thanks.

Lexmex

I was referring to bumper cutouts. Don't know you'd want to run an exhaust cutout.

With the bumper cutouts, that was the experience with all of my friends in Mexico and I knew some friends who cut it to close and wound up with some bumper issues. The example shown above is fine though.

The last modification I did was using an APC muffler as a resonator and I painted that black with heat-resistant paint. Incidentally, just a few hours ago I was painting most of my exhaust piping black with black heat-resistant paint to protect it from the salty air (since my exhaust piping is modified piping).

lexus114

That look`s so cool!!

tcheung87

Hey that's my car lol. I've been running that exhaust for over a year and there's no wear on the bumper despite being close to it. I'll get you guys some more angles and vid sometime.

alaskaty

Awesome to hear the tip/muffler isn't causing any problems. You have the best install I've seen. I love how close you were able to get it from the bumper. What's the clearance on that thing? Thanks again.
Jason