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Rattle in exhaust shielding

dbateman

CEG'er
Joined
Jan 19, 2004
Messages
113
Location
Virginia
I've had a rattle in my exhaust shielding for a long time, it's most noticable around 2,000 RPM. I've put the car up on ramps and probed around there, it seems to be in the vertical part right before it makes it's turn towards the back of the car.

What's the best fix for this?
 
Use one of those muffler repair kits (with the straps, nuts and bolts)-Victor V812 Muffler Repair Kit. About $8 from Autozone or Advance. Need shears to cut the the strap for the correct length. Then you can strap around the shield and the catalytix converter and bolt it up. When you buy the kit, you will see how it works. I had the same issue for the main catalytic converter and it was making a loose dink sound the first 15 seconds or so during start up.
 
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Same here. I just used a giant hose clamp, tightened it down, and no more rattle. My cat is gutted and I couldn't figure out what was rattling until I crawled under it. (Ref. my location)
 
I was just at Advance Auto Parts this evening and couldn't locate the Victor V812 but found the Victor V801 Muffler Repair Kit which was similar (also $8).
 
Well I have this rattle. Sometimes you can hear it rattle when I shut my driver side door hard, but you can ALWAYS hear it when I start it up. And you can hear it especially at 2k and also other area in the RPM. It used to be only bad in the winter (cold starts) but now when I start is it has this sound like a very fast rattle to almost like a "buzz" but a very metal-ly sounding buzz and when I'm driving it sounds like rasp.

So I check under my car as I expect the cause is a loose heat shield. I got under and in fact the one side was sort of broke loose and I could move it so I thought I nailed the issue. So I got one of those Victor exhaust repair kits, put on the steel mesh pieces and cranked it tight w/ the metal strapping and bolts. When I fired up the car...SAME NOISE :mad:.

I crawled back under and hit the the rear of the cat with my knuckle (part not protected by the heat shield) and it made this "boooiiiinnng" noise. Is this what the issue is, a bum cat? I just passed emissions not to long ago so I don't know. I can imagine that that whatever is causing this boing noise could also be making the buzz and rasp.

Any ideas?
 
..I crawled back under and hit the the rear of the cat with my knuckle (part not protected by the heat shield) and it made this "boooiiiinnng" noise. Is this what the issue is, a bum cat? I just passed emissions not to long ago so I don't know. I can imagine that that whatever is causing this boing noise could also be making the buzz and rasp.

Any ideas?

Probably......
 
I got the Victor repair kit, but haven't gotten around to putting the car up on ramps and fixing it. I just got a house with a flat paved driveway so I could work on it, but I'm still busy moving in. ;)

I'm sort of getting used to the noise and instinctively stay away from the 2k RPM range when driving in town, amazing what you can get used to.
 
I had a low rpm rattle when I first purchased my car. Took it to the dealer and they ended up replacing the cat to fix the problem. Apparently some piecies of the cat were loose inside, causing the noise I was hearing. Just something to consider if you're still having an issue after the heat shield fix.
 
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