MBRP Armor Lite Off Road Exhaust with Turn Down (00-06 2.5L or 4.0L Jeep Wrangler TJ)Find parts that fit my vehicle

Jake: Jake here for ExtremeTerrain, and today, I'm taking a look at the MBRP Armor Lite Off-Road Exhaust with Turn Down, fitting 2000 to 2006, 2.5 and 4-liter TJ Wranglers. If you're looking for an exhaust option that does it all on a budget, then you are in luck. This one is gonna bring you some serious sound and additional clearance for off-roading for a low, low price. This turn down setup will get you some extra volume and keep all your clearances intact without blowing up the budget. Being as this is the race profile, this one is gonna get a four outta five on our loudness meter. It's not quite enough to blow out your eardrums, but it will be a big difference versus stock.MBRP has made a name for themselves by making good quality exhaust available at a reasonable price, and this one is no exception. These always sound good, they fit well, and they're not gonna cost you a fortune. Now, what we've got here is a cat-back system, meaning that it is going to eliminate your factory mufflers and resonators, but keep your catalytic converters intact. And it does fit both the 2.5 and 4-liter engines on the TJ.This is gonna give your TJ a lot more growl, and as you heard from the clips at the beginning of the video, it is a deeper tone than the stock exhaust, and it is a bit louder as well. Passers-by are definitely gonna know something is up with your Jeep. Inside, you're gonna get more noise too, and that is also due to the fact that this is a turn down setup, and thus, the exhaust is gonna exit underneath of the passenger compartment ahead of your rear axle.So you can expect a noticeable increase inside as well. However, that turn down does also have a benefit to it since that means it eliminates the over-axle pipe and tip at the rear, you're gonna get quite a bit more clearance, so your break over angle is gonna stay intact as this does tuck up pretty tight against the frame. But the lack of an over-axle pipe and tip at the rear means that your rear axle can handle a bit more articulation without interference, and your departure angle is improved a bit as well since there's less stuff hanging out over behind the rear axle. So if you want the sound and improve breathing for your engine without having to sacrifice off-road capability, this is gonna be a great choice for you.Now, this is MBRP's Armor Lite series, hence the name, meaning that the piping here is 2-1/2-inch mandrel bent aluminized steel. So this is going to allow for improved exhaust flow over stock, and it's gonna be best suited to drier climates or places that don't see a lot of rain or salt. However, MBRP does also offer the same exhaust in their Armor Plus series which is T409 grade stainless. That one is gonna give you a little bit more protection, but it's gonna be a little bit more expensive.So the benefit of going with the aluminized steel, though, is that it keeps that price really, really palatable. How palatable exactly? Well, this setup as you see it here is gonna run you about $225, and that makes it the least expensive cat-back system available for the TJ Wrangler. It's a really affordable system that's gonna make a big improvement versus stock. You're gonna enjoy the sound and it's gonna keep your off-road clearances intact. It's certainly something you'll be able to notice and enjoy, and you're not spending a whole lot of money to get it done. So, for that, I think it's definitely worth its cost of entry.Installation is gonna get a two out of three on our difficulty meter, and you should expect it to take you about two hours to complete. Doing exhaust is a pretty straightforward process. It can get a little bit finicky because of space, even though it only requires some simple tools. And everything you need to get this installed on your Jeep is included in the kit too, even the hanger and the clamps, plus the tip that goes out here for the turn down. And to show you the install process now, let's go ahead and throw it over to one of our XT customers.Man: All right guys, here's everything you're going to need to install the MBRP cat-back exhaust system onto your Jeep. We're gonna start with our deep socket set. This is going to be for installing and removing the old hardware on the exhaust system. I like to carry a couple different size ratchets for breaking some old bolts free and installing the new hardware, along with an extension and adapter for those, as well as some ratcheting wrenches. You don't need ratcheting ones, but they're always nice to have for removing the old hardware and installing the new.We're gonna always wanna make sure we're wearing our safety goggles when cutting or working underneath the Jeep, as well as a face shield to wear while cutting. I like to also bring in an impact gun to make removal and installation of the bolts a little bit easier, although this isn't necessary. We also have our penetrating oil for soaking the old hardware and making it easier to remove, as well as our cutoff wheel or some sort of cutting blade to cut the extension pipe if you have a TJ model Wrangler.All right, guys, today we're gonna be installing this MBRP cat-back exhaust system with 2.5-inch turn down on our 2006 Jeep Wrangler TJ behind me here. We have our Jeep up in the air using a two-post lift, but you could also do this installation on the ground. Whether you're doing this on the ground or with a lift, make sure to always follow the proper safety procedures to keep yourself safe during the install. Step one of the install is gonna be to use a lubricating oil on all bolts, rubber isolators and fasteners on the stock exhaust system to make removal easier. The next step is going to be to cut the exhaust system behind the muffler to allow for easy removal of the tailpipe. We can do that by cutting right here.After cutting your exhaust, you'll wanna locate the two rubber isolator clips that hold the tailpipe of the exhaust onto the system and remove them. The first rubber isolator clip is located in the back right of the jeep on the frame. You can see our exhaust is a little beat up from trail damage, so it's actually already disconnected for us, but usually, you would pull this pin out of this rubber isolator by pushing the exhaust out of the rubber isolator and dropping it down like you see here. The second rubber isolator is located by the muffler underneath the Jeep right up there. Now that we've removed the two rubber isolators as well as cut the exhaust behind the muffler, the next step will be to remove the tailpipe from the exhaust system.The next step will be to remove the two bolts holding the muffler onto the rest of the exhaust system. That's done at the flange under the center skid plate of the Jeep, and there's one bolt on this side here and one bolt on the other side in the same location. Although it's not necessary, you may find it easier to remove the stock skid plate from the Jeep to get to the exhaust flange bolts. You can do this by removing the four transfer case and transmission mounts in the middle and the six bolts located on the outside of the skid plate. This will give you more room to work underneath the Jeep and get the exhaust bolts out. The next step is to remove the two exhaust flange bolts located here and here. We can now remove the muffler assembly from the Jeep.Now, the next step will be determining whether or not we need to cut the extension pipe that comes with the exhaust system. For LJ model Wranglers, you'll simply install the flange onto the extension pipe and into the vehicle. For a TJ Wrangler like ours, we'll need to cut the extension pipe 10 inches as shown now. All right. We've now measured exactly 10 inches of where we need to cut off the pipe for and marked it with this blue tape. We'll now cut across this line we've made to shorten the pipe to the necessary length to install on our Wrangler.Now that we've cut the extension pipe by 10 inches to the correct length for the vehicle, we can go ahead and get it installed on the Jeep. We're going to want to bring over our extension pipe, our flange, one of our two 2-1/2-inch clamps, as well as the two pieces of hardware that they provided in the kit. Start by installing the exhaust extension onto the existing exhaust system, then slide the flange over the back of the extension pipe and install the two bolts that came with the hardware.You can now take the 2-1/2--inch clamp and slide it over the exhaust extension pipe. Next, we can install the muffler assembly itself, and slide the clamp we just installed over the connecting parts of the muffler to the extension pipe. We can now take our second 2-1/2-inch clamp, remove the nut and washer from one side, take our exhaust hanger and install it as shown here. Then we'll put the washer and nut back on. This is now ready for installation on the vehicle.Start by installing the exhaust clamp and hanger by sliding it over the end of the muffler. Then take your downpipe and slide it into the back of the muffler. We'll now adjust the exhaust hanger and rotate it to connect up into our rubber bushing up here. Now that we have the exhaust hanger mounted in the rubber bracket down to the muffler, we can slide in our tailpiece and tighten the exhaust clamp bolt to secure it to the muffler. You can then come back up front to the first exhaust clamp and tighten this nut down.You've now completed the installation of the MBRP cat-back exhaust system. Make sure to go back and check all hardware to make sure it's tight, as well as the rubber exhaust hanger, ensuring that the hanging rod is submitted fully through the rubber bushing. Also, if you removed the stock skid plate from the Jeep, make sure now that you reinstall that using existing hardware.Now that we've fully installed the exhaust system in our Jeep, we'll want to make sure everything is tight and secure. Starting at the front of the new exhaust system, working your way back, tighten all hardware and bolts, including the exhaust clamps to 45-foot pounds of torque. After 60 miles of driving, make sure to do this again to ensure the system is clear. Another thing we should check for is clearances. When reinstalling everything, make sure nothing is rubbing or touching anything that it shouldn't be and everything has adequate clearance, and make adjustments as necessary.Jake: That's gonna wrap it up here for our review and install of the MBRP Armor Lite Turn Down Off-Road Exhaust, fitting 2000 to 2006, 2.5 and 4-liter TJ Wranglers. Thanks so much for watching, and as always, for all things Wrangler, be sure to keep it right here at extremeterrain.com.