I found out where my exhaust leak is when doing the soapy water shop vac test.
It looks like this was welded before, but in the areas by the screws where there is no weld, there is a crack. How can I repair this? Would welding be possible in that narrow area? JB weld makes 3 types of exhaust sealant. Would they work?

 

Take it to a muffler shop, have them weld it, they usually are very rreasonable and very good at tthat type of welding.

 

Looks like previous dude might have just welded it in place instead of removing the bolts and welding it thoroughly. He probably didn't get the whole crack which allowed it to continue to crack. Another thing to consider is do you have something moving more than it should? Are all of the exhaust hangers good? Are you motor mounts and xfer case mounts good? If those are bad then you will have more engine movement, which physically stresses the exhaust system.

I second the muffler shop rec. A muffler shop will be superior to a guy with a welder.

 

Had the exact same issue and yep, muffler shop took care of it easily.

 

Ditt on the muffler shop. I had the same issue several years ago, exhaust shop fixed it for I think like $50. It's happened again on both sides now but I'm just gonna put long tubes on it instead of another bandaid

 

I send the photos to some muffler shops. One said "it's not weldable and will need a new pipe at $700". Another one said "it will be hard to fix and the cost is hard to estimate but will be less than $400"

I guess I'll try some of this stuff https://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-extremeheat. It seemed to work well enough for ChrisFix. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-exs1iMLFU

 

I think you’ll be disappointed. I’d get it welded.

 

Try more shops. Meinike or a local shop. My local shops usually charges less than $20

 

Uh, that's false info from them if I ever heard it. Just did this on my 03 about 3 weeks back. Dropped out the y pipe, ran a line of weld to seal it back up and reinstalled pipe. Maybe if you drop the y pipe for them?

 

Definitely this OP. Both times I’ve dropped by a welder to fix this, I’ve had the Y pipe off and in the back of the Tacoma and they’ve just real quick laid a bead. One time was free, another was like $50, and both were done within an hour.