98 Tacoma exhaust repairs

Hi... Anyone here have advice where I should purchase an exhaust system for
my 98 Tacoma V6 ExCab automatic?
The oxygen sensor is almost completely rotted through and I guess from what
the repair shop said I'll need to replace almost the entire system because
of the way the sensor is permanently mounted (not bolted on). :(
The shame is the rest of the exhaust system is fine!

Anyone have any experience dealing with this?

Thanks

"frank" <frank@nospam.me> wrote in message
news:N3dQf.1960$aF3.55@trndny02...[color=blue]
> Hi... Anyone here have advice where I should purchase an exhaust system
> for my 98 Tacoma V6 ExCab automatic?
> The oxygen sensor is almost completely rotted through and I guess from
> what the repair shop said I'll need to replace almost the entire system
> because of the way the sensor is permanently mounted (not bolted on). :(
> The shame is the rest of the exhaust system is fine!
>
> Anyone have any experience dealing with this?
>
> Thanks
>[/color]

I would reccomend you find another shop. I have never heard of any O2
sesor being part of the exhaust. Toyota usually uses studs, which are
threaded into the exhast pipe. The O2 sensor fits over the studs and is held
on by two nuts. The nuts and studs seem to rust very easily. You can usually
get the studs out by heating the exhaust around the studs with a torch. If
they break you should be able to drill them out and repair the threads with
a heli coil. Of course this depends on the condition of the exhaust pipe as
well.

Definitely go somewhere else. I have a 98 v6 extrcab Tacoma too. I have
changed my one of my O2 sensors myself and they are not permanent, they are
bolted in. Now if the flange is so rotted away that it wont hold the sensor
anymor, that is a different story (highly unlikely). But you said the rest
of the system is fine. Has your truck seen a lot of snow? Even IF the sensor
was pemanently fixed to the pipe, the exhaust comes out in sections anyway.
You would only need to replace PART of the pipe before or after the cat.

[url]http://www.geocities.com/tinlizzard8/sensor1.jpg[/url]
[url]http://www.geocities.com/tinlizzard8/sensor2.jpg[/url]