rattling,heat sheild or cat?help

[loser]

my car rattles, right under the passenger feet area, so im pretty sure is something to do with my cat or heat sheild.it does it when i shift ( faster than normal driving) or when i hit a bump.i bent down and tryed to shake the heat sheild and the cat and neither made noise so i dont know what to do? does anyone know how to figure out which it is.and yes i did search a little.( cuz im a smarty [img]smile.gif[/img] ) thanks.

[98Camaro3.8]

My cat starting rattling like all hell one day. Thought for sure it was the cat, but it ended up just being the heat shield. Just get a pair of tin snips and rip both halves of the shield off.

[andrew.brandon]

mine did the same thing after I had tranmission work done. I also shook the feck out of stuff and couldn't find it. not till I got under the car and found the heat shild was bent in a way to that it would take a VERY GOOD shake to get it to hit the cat.just bent it back some

[Red]

I have gone through 3 cats since i got my car in 2000 and everytime it went bad it had the same sound. Almost like shaking a spray paint can. It had that sound all the time, not just when shifting or bumps. I really noticed when driving by a wall.

Now i have a sound like you describe, started out rattling a little when i would hit bumps or when i would hit the gas. I took it to the dealership (warranty on the cat) and it turned out it was a hanger bolt or some supporting bolt was loose. They tightened it and it fixed the problem for a short time.

Take it to a brake shop you trust and have them check it (most around here wouldnt even charge you to tighten a bolt) and they can tell you. It might be time for a new exhaust system.

brad

edit ( i meant exhaust shop obviously, not brake shop lol)

[loser]

im hopeing its not time for a new exhust yet, 41,000 miles on it.i have the I pipe and back from a 2001 Z28 but i dont have time to put it on yet.its nice its got those black rectangle tips. its been raining lately, i gusse ill have to get back under again.im hopeing its not tha cat.it does it when i rev it up some times. but its real noticeable when i shift hard ( like in between kinda, when i let the clutch back out)thanks for the replyes guys

[12secondv6]

I doubt it's the cat.

Heat shields (which there are many) are held on by small tack welds all over the place.

Take a look under there and tap all the heat shields one at a time.

You may just need to have an exhaust shop just tack weld it in 1 or 2 spots.... maybe $50?

[loser]

cant i just rip it off? or is that bad? i tryed to wiggle it and it did move, and i hit and wiggled the cat and it didnt do anything but the noise is very annoying

[FlamespikeMST1]

im with 12secondv6, im very sure its the heat shields. you CAN tear them off, but usually fixing the problem is much better than hiding it.
and no, ripping it off is not fixing it, lol

[98Camaro3.8]

Originally posted by FlamespikeMST1:
ripping it off is not fixing it, lol

*shrug* Fixed it for me. :D [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[loser]

well is ripping it off gonna hurt anything?

[blackFbird_98]

well i took mine off as well and no more rattle

[Kidcamaro98]

mines doing that right now as we speak...i also thought it was the cat. however it wasnt...

for my it was the stock pipe coming out of the cat. connecting to the muffler...the clamp was shot and the pipe rattled ontop of the other pipe where its suposed to be clamped...i just put a new clamp on it and it was gone but didnt mess around with it because my new exhaust system will be here friday thank god...

[rs50fox]

Nope wont hurt anything I took mine off and its been fine. I went over a speed bump and it riped the bottom half off and the top part rattled like crazy so I took it off. What kinda cat is it maybe some one can tell you the best way to take it off

[loser]

stock cat, ill take a look today to try and see how its on.thanks for the info everyone

[FlamespikeMST1]

lol @ 98camaro3.8