After a $1,400 Borla Ordering Mistake, I Built This 6-Step Exhaust Checklist for Our Shop

I handle parts ordering and installation scheduling at a six-bay performance shop outside Charlotte. We're a Borla dealer, which means I'm the person who turns "I want it louder" into a part number and a labor quote. I've been doing that since 2019, and somewhere past order #30 I stopped pretending I had every fitment detail in my head.

The honest version is that I made the classic mistakes early on: ordered a cat-back by model year without checking cab configuration, recommended the aggressive Borla sound level to a customer who actually wanted livable, and scheduled an install without checking which tools were on the cart. The biggest single mistake cost us about $170 in return freight and a nine-day delay on a customer's truck, not counting the phone call from my shop owner. By mid-2022, I had turned all of those incidents into a written checklist. This is the current version, updated as of January 2025.

This guide is for dealers, installers, workshops, and B2B parts people who quote Borla systems for real customers. If you're doing a single install in your own garage, most of the checklist still applies. If you're fabricating a custom exhaust from scratch, this isn't for you—you're working outside the 80% bolt-on case, and no part checklist fixes that.

Step 1: Pull the VIN before you promise a fitment

Model-year-only information caused my most expensive mistake. A customer had a 2021 F-150 with the 5.0L. I ordered a cat-back that was advertised for the same year and same engine, but it was built for a different cab configuration. The system looked right at a glance. It wasn't until we tried to line up the rear section with the factory hanger locations that we realized the wheelbase difference made the pipes sit wrong.

That invoice was around $1,400. The return freight ate $170 of it, and the customer waited nine extra days for the correct system. I now say this to every new counter person we hire: model year is not a fitment specification.

Cab configuration, bed length, wheelbase, engine, drivetrain, and even trim packages like a Raptor or a TRX can change the part you need. The Borla catalog lists these notes clearly, but only if you open the product page instead of trusting a search snippet. I pull the VIN before I type anything into an order.

Step 2: Settle the sound level in words before you pick a system

Sound is the reason most people buy a Borla exhaust, but it's also the reason orders go wrong. In the Borla lineup, Atak is the aggressive, high-volume option. Touring is the refined end of the performance range, still deeper than stock but comfortable on a highway. S-Type sits somewhere in between. That sounds simple enough, but customers rarely describe what they want in terms that map cleanly to those categories.

Most truck owners have already watched a few Borla Atak cat-back exhaust system reviews before they walk in. The videos are usually filmed in a parking garage with a phone, which tells you almost nothing about what the system sounds like at 75 mph under load. I point that out nicely and then ask a more useful question:

"On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 sounds exactly like the factory exhaust and 10 sounds like a race truck, what number do you want?"

If they say 6 or 7, I usually show them the Borla cat-back Touring exhaust system. It's the spec I recommend for daily drivers, long commutes, and customers who say "I want to hear it, but I don't want to hate my life after 40 miles." If they say 8 or 9, and they've actually ridden in a loud truck before, I quote Atak.

I made the mistake of quoting Atak for a customer who said he wanted "to actually hear it." He heard it. Three days later, he called to ask whether we could make it quieter. We could, but it meant swapping to a Touring system and paying labor twice. That's the kind of mistake that doesn't show up on a fitment chart.

Step 3: Read the actual product page, not the title

Two exhaust kits can look nearly identical in a shopping feed and be completely different systems. A cat-back starts behind the catalytic converter and replaces the pipes back to the tips. An axle-back starts further back, usually at the rear axle, and leaves the front section alone. Both are legitimate products, but they're not interchangeable.

I check the product page for three things before I add anything to an order:

First, what's actually included in the box—muffler section, over-axle pipes, tips, clamps, or just some of those. Second, what the vehicle is expected to have from the factory. And third, any notes about modified or non-stock exhaust systems.

That third one bit me once. We quoted a cat-back for a Silverado that had a previous aftermarket muffler welded in. The old exhaust shop had cut the factory pipe a few inches short. The new Borla system was built to connect to a stock front section, and the stub we found on the truck didn't match. That wasn't a Borla problem. It was a "we didn't look at the truck before promising a bolt-on install" problem.

I also write the full SKU on the repair order now, not just "Borla Touring exhaust." In a busy shop, a vague description is how a tech ends up opening the wrong box.

Step 4: Check the tool list before the truck is on the lift

A Borla cat-back install is usually straightforward, but "usually" is not the same as "always." The installs that go sideways are the ones where we didn't know what we'd find underneath the vehicle.

If you're in the rust belt, or anywhere near salt, budget time for seized fasteners and brittle hanger isolators. Factory rubber hangers can crack after a few winters, and the metal rods don't always slide out cleanly. Having a set of universal exhaust hangers in stock has saved us more than once.

There's also a specialty tool that belongs in this conversation: a pop insert hand tool. It sets blind rivet nuts into frame rails or brackets, which creates a threaded mounting point without welding or pulling apart the vehicle. It sounds niche, but it comes up more than you'd think when you're installing exhaust tips or repositioning a hanger bracket on a truck with an aftermarket bumper.

I learned that the hard way on a Monday job. We had the exhaust system ready, the customer was waiting, and the tip bracket needed a threaded point that didn't exist. Twenty minutes later, we borrowed a pop insert hand tool from a body shop two blocks away. The job got done, but the customer watched us scramble, and the schedule slipped. Now, if there's any chance a bracket or tip needs a threaded insert, I order the tool with the exhaust kit. It's cheap enough that waiting until the day of the install is just poor planning.

Step 5: Quote the result you can defend

Customers ask about horsepower almost every time. My standard answer is that a cat-back exhaust improves airflow and changes the sound, but it's not a magic power adder. The result depends on the engine, the tune, the intake, and the rest of the exhaust path.

I don't put made-up horsepower numbers on a quote. If Borla publishes dyno data for a specific vehicle, I'll reference that test and note the exact configuration. Otherwise, I tell the customer what we know from real installs: the system is engineered for flow, it's built from quality materials, and the sound is the main event. FTC advertising guidelines require claims to be substantiated, but my rule is simpler than that. If I promise a number and the customer doesn't see it on their vehicle, I'm the one who looks dishonest.

I'd rather underpromise on power and let the sound do the selling.

Step 6: Don't wing the accessory questions that ride along

Exhaust work doesn't happen in a vacuum. The same customer who asks about a cat-back often has another question that has nothing to do with pipes.

One I hear constantly is, "Can you program a key fob with an OBD2 scanner?" The short answer is: not with a typical code reader. A basic OBD2 scanner reads and clears diagnostic trouble codes and shows live sensor data. Programming a key fob usually requires security access to the immobilizer module, which is a different category of tool. Some professional bidirectional scanners can do it on certain makes, but the generic scanner in the service bay won't get you there. If you tell a customer yes and they book an appointment for it, you'll both be disappointed.

Another common one involves radio reception after an accessory install. If someone is wiring a car antenna with amplifier, the usual mistake is power and ground. An amplifier that shares a ground with something noisy, or has a power wire routed against an ignition coil harness, can pick up whine that sounds like an electrical problem. I know this because we once spent time checking our exhaust work on a truck that had a radio buzz, only to find the customer's newly installed amplified antenna was the source. The exhaust wasn't at fault, but we had to prove it by testing instead of assuming.

These questions don't fit neatly into an exhaust ordering checklist, but they come across the same counter. A straight answer builds more trust than a confident guess.

Mistakes I still watch for

After all these years, the same patterns show up in our industry:

• Ordering from a search result instead of opening the fitment notes.
• Letting a customer pick a sound level based only on a video filmed on a phone.
• Assuming the truck is stock underneath just because it looks stock from the outside.
• Writing a vague part description on the repair order and hoping the right box gets pulled.
• Not having the small hardware or specialty tools available when the vehicle is already on the lift.

This checklist didn't make me a genius. It made me slower for about 30 seconds at the beginning of every quote. But slower quoting has made us faster in the shop, and it reduced the number of awkward phone calls I have to make to customers. If you're new to ordering Borla systems, steal this list, adapt it to your shop, and keep it where you can see it.