1993 Dodge Dakota LE, 5.2L, original owner, 174,000 miles

The other day I noticed what looked like water dripping from underneath the middle of the truck. Get down to look and it's dripping out the back of my muffler. It's coming out of a pin hole. Thought crap...my muffler has a pinhole in it. It's the original exhaust system. Grabbed a tube of that Permatex muffler goo from the parts store and went to go patch it. I got under the truck to do the patch work and upon further inspection, I saw the pin hole at the bottom and another at the top and they looked like they were supposed to be there. About 1/32" holes. So I didn't do anything to them. Not all was lost because I found three other small cracks that I cleaned up and patched. But I was wondering, are those pinholes, in fact, supposed to be there? Can't say I ever noticed water dripping from them before but it must have because you can see some water signs of it on the muffler. Must be something to relieve excess condensation in the exhaust but truthfully I know little about this. Anyone know?? Thank you! Ed

 

 

Thanks J. Kinda thought so after looking/thinking it through and I appreciate you confirming. Odd how I've owned this truck for 26 years and just sorta noticed it now. The muffler musta had a bad day cuz I don't think condensation comes out that hole often...at least not in that volume.

 

If I'm not mistaken that is a stainless steel exhaust system. If it were regular metal that sucker would have rotted out long ago. I see I have a couple joint clamps rotted out that are doing nothing. Guess I'll replace those. Have to figger out the size of them I suppose.

 

I had a 1994 SLT that had 272,000 miles on it (in 18 years), and all the exhaust was factory. It was supposed to be stainless steel, but a cheaper stainless, because it still rusted a little.
Oz