Originally Posted By: koffy
My xterra as well as my sisters sienna developed a large exhaust leak,,, something common here in LI NY, so I was thinking about buying a cheap flux welder to do it myself. However, reading on the web people say that those welders are not good for this kind of stuff, that I should get a good mig welder, but those are not cheap, keeping in mind that I won’t use it often, I don’t know if it really make sense.
This seems like one of those things that you come in with high expectations and end up destroyed, don't even bother.
If you're not already good with a welder your options are realistically:
1. Replace the rusted part of the exhaust.
2. Cut the rusted part out and join the pipes by making a lap joint with a band clamp, connector, reducer or flex joint connector and some U-clamps (obviously not going to work if the opening is on a catalytic converter).
3. If the hole is small just wrap a band clamp around it.
Options 2 and 3 are extremely cheap, less than twenty dollars in material cost and have a higher chance of working (if you measured and removed any rusted fasteners or clamps, nearly 100% chance of working).