exhaust rattle - milltek

[biggripper]

I have developed an exhaust rattle on my 02 MCS. I have a Milltek Cat back on the car. Let me describe the rattle. It is a very tinny rattle. The rattle seems most noticable from about the middle of the car. It becomes most apparent upon decelleration. It also seems to dissappear after the exhaust has become good and hot.

Mini Center said it was the metal gasket between where the stock header and my Milltek mate. They said there is a crack in it and that the would happily replace the part for $165. I purchased the $12 dollar part so I could replaced myself. I installed the Milltek so this will not be difficult. However, I have not jacked up the car to look for myself yet (procrastinator).

Before I tackle this issue I thought you all could offer some insight.

How about you, Keith...King of rattle elimination.

Sean

[weezer2282]

Keith would be the man to ask. He isn't too fond of the Milltek exhaust if I remember right though. Especially the header.

[biggripper]

Alright so here is where I am at...

I have toyed with my car some and the rattle is still there. It is driving me effing insane.

I have replace the gasket where the header and the system mate. I saw spot in the heat shielding where it looked like an edge on the resonater had been rubbing. I bent it some and the rattle actually disappeared for a day but it has now resurfaced and it actually seems worse.

While under the car I notice that the exhaust system doesn't seem to be perfectly centered in the exhaust tunel. There doesn't seem to be any way to get it to stay centered. Come to think of it I am certain that this is part of the problem because the rattle was gone for about a day, but after a day of driving and going around corners it resurfaced.

Could I maybe space the system down away from the belly of the car. I think the problem is the size of the resonator...it barely fits in the tunel.

Another thought...would it be a bad idea to remove the heat shield altogether?

[UberMini968]

hey i have the same problem, i have a palo uber exhaust and when the car is cold the car shakes hard at a stop, it seems to be coming from the mid section. i haven't taken it to be checked but when the car warms up the shaking is gone and also when i give it the littlest amount of gas. i think ill lift it and see whats up this week.

[biggripper]

I can now say my rattle is fixed thanks to Stratmosphere and the guys at 210 Performance. My rattles were two-fold.

1. I had a very tinny rattle caused by a bad front resonator pipe. This was fixed under warranty replacement by Stratmosphere.

2. After the tinny rattle was eliminated with the front resonator replacement, it revealed there was another intermittent rattle that was caused by the driver's side hanger on the resonator pipe making contact with the heat shield. While I was at 210 Performance my car was up on a lift so I had great ability to see all components of the system. It was quite obvious because the end of the hanger made a nice little circular indentation in the heat shield. Anyway, for whatever reason, my system naturally wants to gravitate toward the driver's side of the car. There is no apparent adjustment for this with the hangers on the Milltek system as they are just straight steel rods. The hangers on the factor system have lips on both sides to keep lateral movement to a minimum. So what was my solution...a very small hose clamp on the hanger butted up against the inside of the rubber hanger. I only put the clamp on the one side because there was no evidence of the system ever gravitating toward the passenger side of the car.

I hope this helps.

Sean

PS
Thanks Keith for offering to help. Ultimately I just didn't have enough free time do these projects on my own. The Air Force is consuming a lot of my time at the present moment. Cheers

[justintime]

haha, I was gonna say its probably the resonator, but then scrolled down and saw this is an old thread. :rolleyes: :p

I can now say my rattle is fixed thanks to Stratmosphere and the guys at 210 Performance. My rattles were two-fold.

1. I had a very tinny rattle caused by a bad front resonator pipe. This was fixed under warranty replacement by Stratmosphere.

2. After the tinny rattle was eliminated with the front resonator replacement, it revealed there was another intermittent rattle that was caused by the driver's side hanger on the resonator pipe making contact with the heat shield. While I was at 210 Performance my car was up on a lift so I had great ability to see all components of the system. It was quite obvious because the end of the hanger made a nice little circular indentation in the heat shield. Anyway, for whatever reason, my system naturally wants to gravitate toward the driver's side of the car. There is no apparent adjustment for this with the hangers on the Milltek system as they are just straight steel rods. The hangers on the factor system have lips on both sides to keep lateral movement to a minimum. So what was my solution...a very small hose clamp on the hanger butted up against the inside of the rubber hanger. I only put the clamp on the one side because there was no evidence of the system ever gravitating toward the passenger side of the car.

I hope this helps.

Sean

PS
Thanks Keith for offering to help. Ultimately I just didn't have enough free time do these projects on my own. The Air Force is consuming a lot of my time at the present moment. Cheers