More rattling...

[masonvonritchie]

For Christmas, I drove my car from San Diego, Ca to Dallas, Tx and back. Before that, I determined that my exhaust shields were rattling... So a couple days ago I changed my oil, and while I was down their I went ahead and removed the shield that was rattling. But I did notice that after I got back to san diego, the rattling had gotten noticibly louder. It sounds like it's coming more from the rear, around the crackcase/transmission area. I haven't done a real in depth investigation because I have to drive somewhere to be able to get under my car, and by then the engine has warmed up enough to stop the rattling. Anybody else have problems with rattling like that?

[badinfluenceRS]

Re: More rattling...

the tranny isn't really that far back on the car...did you check all the exhaust in the rear, make sure it's secure and such

one time i heard a rattle/clanking in the rear and it ended up being the rear brake caliper was loose

[97rs4life]

Re: More rattling...

check the heat shield on the cat.

[Xian]

Re: More rattling...

Did you take off the loose heat shield completely?

At around 100K miles the lower half of the heat shield on my cat basically fell off. Now the top half is loose and making an awful racket, but it wouldn't come off tugging on it by hand, so one of these days I'll have to get under there and find a way to secure it. Maybe you've got the same problem?

[CDNFB]

Re: More rattling...

If it goes away when the car warms up I would bet that it's the internals of the cat that are worn and loose. That's what my car does. When it's cold the cat rattles and the warmer the engine gets the less the cat rattles. It's especially worse accelerating just off idle.

[Rob Bell]

Re: More rattling...

Mason, when the cat is cold, just use your fist and pound on it and see if it rattles. If it does then it's probably the internals, and therefore it needs to be replaced.

Xian, if you cannot get the upper heat shield off, try using some hose clamps (the screw kind), connect them together to make a long one, and then wrap that around the cat. One or two of those will probably hold it for awhile. But it's on its way out. So now you have a good excuse to get a hi-flow cat

[masonvonritchie]

Re: More rattling...

Hey thanks for the input guys. The car only has 30K miles on it so I'd be a little surprised if it was the cat but I'm gonna check on it. I'm getting a high flow cat soon anyway. Thanks again