rattling noisy exhaust - super annoying

[standard]

Hey everybody -

I've almost got my car running okay, but one annoyance that is growing is that since I got 'er, the exhaust pipe has always rattled/vibrated with varying degrees of intensity and loudness, depending on acceleration, etc.

It's the type of thing where I can touch my boot to the exhaust tip while the car is sitting in the driveway and the sound will stop.

I have been under the car while it's idling/rattling and have double checked all of the rubber hangers and everything is okay. The pipes are a somewhat sloppy weld job the previous owner did, but it is solid. I can touch the pipe with a rubber mallet at almost any location along the length of it and the vibration will stop. I even tried adding in a rubber strap to sort of pull the other straps taut. no luck.

So my question is: what can I do? Are these pipes usually two layer? Am I hearing an inner pipe vibrating against an outer pipe? I have heard of guys putting random screws into the pipes to quiet them, but i would want some opinions from here before trying it.

thanks for any input.

tom

[kabbage]

One thing I do is squeeze in model rocketry flame retardant wadding anywhere where it may vibrate. Looks like this won't help you though.

[b3 madness]

Check to make sure that your heat shield above the muffler is not in contact at some point. When I replaced the muffler on mine, I hung it a little to high at first and had this problem. I removed the heat shield and tweaked it a bit, rehung, and all is well! Good luck.

[elcamino1]

I had my muffler replaced about a year ago baffle came loose inside allmost drove me crazy,just might be your problem,but probably heat shield.

[packrat427]

Yes double check the heat shields on the cat and the manifold and down pipe , mine done that , I took off what I could ,and the piece that was still attached
that was still there that rattled , I put a hose clamp around it ..on the down pipe ,and tightened it down , the rattle has been gone for years :lol:

[roycehof]

O.K. Since I had my Festiva (3 years), I 've been plagued by 2 exhaust rattles. The first was inside the rear muffler. Midas had put it on a year earlier for the previous owner. They hung a new one for me no charge and about a year later the same thing happened. I went and got a muffler from a part store - NOT Midas and life was good. Then another rattle was the down pipe to the flange that bolts to the catalytic converter. The pipe was rattling inside the flange. Took me a while to find this and at first thought it was the catalytic converter itself. Welded the flange to the pipe and the rattling stopped. Check these tow things. By the way the muffler has a flange at the rear of the car with two bolts. Remove those and the hangers and you are then free to see if it the muffler or not. Shake the muffler and see if the pipe inside it is loose. Mine was. If Midas did your exhaust, that would be another good indication that the muffler could be the culprit. Good Luck

[kuntry_boi06]

ony my festi i just used a coat hanger

[standard]

thanks for the replies. I will crawl under there this weekend. I hadn't noticed the above-mentioned heat shield over the muffler so i'll check that first.

[WmWatt]

I took the muffler off mine and shook it. A whole pile of rust came out. They rust from the inside out.

Once when I had a rattle I took it back to the service station and he fixed it with a pry bar.

[89fester]

Didn't have a rattle. My muffler broke off the intermediate pipe right at the muffler. I welded a new adapter to the muffler, slid it back together and put on a U-clamp. Now I had a rattle. Turns out the intermediate pipe is double walled. The inner tube was banging around at certain RPMs. So I took it apart again, centered the inner tube and welded it in 3 big blobs to hold it. Slipped it back together, noise was gone. What a PITA though.

89 L

[standard]

The fault, apparently, is the above-mentioned sloppy weld job. The previous owner patched in a smaller diameter pipe after the catalytic converter, and the sound is coming from where the inner pipe is vibrating against the outer (he only welded it on the outside edge). I put a heavy duty u-clamp on it and cranked it down and cut the sound by about 60%... next dry day i will go out and crank it down more, and maybe put another clamp on the other end of the patch to be on the safe side.