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Just got a full exhaust put in. Supplied my own headers and cat. Got a 2.25 mild steel made up for the rest of the piping.
Everything seems alright but whenever I rev to 2000rpm - 2500rpm it starts making this rattling/vibrating noise. I can't pinpoint exactly where it's coming from but it kinda sounds like from the middle or the back.
Should I take it back cause it's a bad exhaust install or does something need to set in after the install?
could be ur exhaust hangers, or that the system was designed to close to the chassis, meaning when it hits a certain rev, it vibrates to much hitting the belly of the car.... look under the car to see if theres enough clearance... chances are they didnt do a proper job, cause no exhaust should be
Thanks for the response, I will try to contact him tomorrow and get the car in. Keep the suggestions coming so that I know what else to look for...
If you can, film/record this noise for us to diagnose. I still think you lack information for us to determine the problem, but yeah bring it back to there workshop to sort it out. Shouldnt be a biggie
i had the exact same thing, installed a hi flow cat, everytime the rev dropped down to 2k revs, mad this deep "gurr" kind of noise... never fixed it, left it as it was..
so its probably ur cat if its the same thing. go back and tell em to fix it... i had a small hi flow metal cat design
on the day i got it done, i thouht it was the muffler, took it back to them, they couldn't diagnose or figure out why.... only a few weeks later i relized it was the cat... then cbf to go back
Might be a long shot but you running a ASR and BEAKS? If so it might be hitting against that, that's what happen to me.
Nah not running ASR or beaks. I got it booked in for them to have a look on Saturday so hope it's a quick fix cause it's quite loud & annoying!
I've recorded the sound but don't really know how to upload it onto here...
also check heat shields, i took mine off cause my aftermarket exhaust was touching them sometimes.
Record noise with portable camera such as mobile phone or digital camera. Most of them are able to record as video (w/ audio included).
Then upload to Youtube.
Then link here or embed.
Maybe the exhaust itself isnt position/angled properly so im guessing when it expands it come in contact with the sway bar.
Check the B pipe as it goes over the rear control arms, maybe its hitting there ?
Thanks everyone. I've recorded a clip and it doesn't sound anything like what I'm hearing. You can't really hear the rattling amd vibration.
If you purchase some Energy Suspension Motor Mounts or a Torque Damper it should solve this problem if it persists after your booking today :) These mods keep your engine from moving when the car is revving and therefore should minimise any rattles of the exhaust
Update: Took it thr exhaust place guy, ultra rude and just said he couldn't find any vibrations. Just drove my car out of the workshop and left it there.
Took it to Midas and he couldn't spot anything. I then took it to my mechanic, we jacked it up a few times and nothing was really hitting... he hit the cat a few times and we could hear this lil tingling noise but it sounds nothing like what's in the car.
I'm totally confused what it could be? I recall someone saying that this happened to them when they were running a stock muffler? I'm running a DC2 Type R stock muffler, could this be the problem? Stock muffler can't handle the extra flow?
If anyone wants to meet up in Melb let me know! Let you hear it in person and hopefully someone can help me out here! lol
how many peice is your exhaust.
from cat back how many other joins is there. b pipe and axle back ?
or just one long pipe after the cat all the way to muffler ?
your muffler is most likely causing some mad turbulence.
it happens on turbo cars alot, so much so that oil gets sucked straight out of the turbo
Well I basically got my headers, then this race pipe thingy that goes to the cat. From the cat it's welded to the B pipe and then goes to the axle back (stock Type R muffler)
remove axle back. drive the car and see if the noise persists.
it would most likely be the b pipe welded to the cat is touching frame around the join somewere if it isnt the diff back
From where ur headers bolt up to the cat... Check if there is a gasket there. If its just bolted up metal to metal u would get rattling at certain rpm. I had this issue as well. Worth a try
I was supplied with a race pipe thingy from my header to cat? This seems to be bolted metal to metal.Quote:
Originally Posted by thaizeg
I also have a metal flexi joint somewhere around there too...
http://i33.tinypic.com/29erbb9.jpg
by looking at the pic and the 'race pipe' u are referring to..
on the left end there is a flange that bolts up to the cat.. u should of had a gasket of some sort between that and the flange on the cat side.. could be a thin one but u should be able to see it kinda when u look in between the flanges. or may be look towards the other end of that pipe where there are nut and bolts holding it to the header collector.. they may be loose and causing the rattling sound..
when u had the car jacked up at the exhaust shop did they rev the car while u were under it? just hitting and shaking the exhaust wont replicate the vibrations when u are driving at a 2k or so rpm..
adding on to thaizeg's post..
http://i33.tinypic.com/29erbb9.jpg
by looking at the pic and the 'race pipe' u are referring to..
on the left end there is a flange that bolts up to the cat.. u should of had a gasket of some sort between that and the flange on the cat side.. could be a thin one but u should be able to see it kinda when u look in between the flanges. or may be look towards the other end of that pipe where there are nut and bolts holding it to the header collector.. they may be loose and causing the rattling sound..
when u had the car jacked up at the exhaust shop did they rev the car while u were under it? just hitting and shaking the exhaust wont replicate the vibrations when u are driving at a 2k or so rpm..
I don't think he put a flange there so to speak but we did find that one bolt was loose. He tightened that and said confidently that it was the problem and told me to drive away but it didn't help one bit.
The noise is quite loud which I didn't think one loose bolt is capable of
There should be a donut gasket on the flange side to the cat. Androoz has one which came with the headers. He has the rmf narrow style headers as well. Back then when i didnt have the donut gasket in i uses to get rattling sounds around 2-2.5k rpm.
did you use any exhaust cement/silicon when you put the pieces together?
U definate need a donut gasket, or else it will leak.... if ur still using a OEM cat... aftermarket cats dont need a donut, a conventional gasket will do...... and using gasket for all exhaust joins with nut and bolt are a must... using a gasket sealing only prevents small leaks... if its like a opening gap where u can shine a torch into it and see in it, u need to realign ur exhaust so it sits flush... my brothers S15 has a massive problem with the exhaust not sitting properly, its a greddy PEii but, basically, the muffler to the mid section is out of align, and he needs to realign it, cause it still leaks to this day even with silicon and a gasket slightly
OR it could be that one of ur gaskets is just sitting loosely... i know its a bitch of a problem, i had similar problem, the donut gasket wasnt sitting properly... but pull the whole system off again, and reinspect it, than reinstall...
Just an update for everyone. The muffler itself has been ruled out. My friend put another muffler on and it was still making that noise. We suspect that it might be something internal. I have uploaded some pictures for you guys to look at including the race pipe which I was talking about. There isn't a flange where the race pipe joins the exhaust bit but the installer has put some red silicone thing there. Taking it out myself would be impossible as everything is welded on apart from the axle back and the race pipe bit. There's also a possiblity that the resonator is not big enough for the system??
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/7999/dscn1629.jpg
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2091/dscn1630t.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5278/dscn1631g.jpg
when you say "race pipe" are you referring to the "flex pipe" (2nd and 3rd photo) or the "resonator" 1st photo?
because it is a common cause of bad exhaust rattle for the inside of the resonator to collapse, happened to my old DA and it sounded BAD haha.
from what you've said that really does sound like it. usually you can hear it if you hit the resonator pretty hard, or even jack up car, and listen close to the resonator while a friend revs it.
when you think about it, it can't be the headers, you've ruled out the muffler and any clearance issues to the chassis or heat shields, so that leaves you with either gaskets or resonator, and I believe it's most likely the latter.
no offence man, but from the pictures, there welding is pretty sloppy, massive chunks, than in some areas, its bare....
could even be ur cat or resonator that have pieces of metal floating around... or worse is collapsed cat/resonator
The race pipe I'm referring to is circled in green. The red part is where there is no welding at all. There's just a bit of red silicon paste there.
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/5278/dscn1631g.jpg
So I need to take this somewhere else to get it fixed up. Obviously this dude aren't gonna fix this up cause his a douche.... can anyone recommend a good exhaust place in Melbourne that does good work? This may need to be cut & even rewelded...
from all the posts sounds like the baffle is stuffed in your reasonator. It looks like a cheapy also.
Those welds are really shocking, i've done better and my exhaust guy rewelded them for me cos he was embrassed by them!
It pays to get it done right the first time, that's why some shops charge more, cos they do a better job.
Just did a Google search for you. Check this guy out. It even has sex in the URL! Unless you have already been there...
http://sportsexhaust.com.au/
Fkn dodgy bastard! I booked dandy exhaust for the weekend for them to have a look for me. The welds are pretty crap, i swear i wanna name and shame this place.
I'll tell them to have a look at the resonator for me...
why did you have to make this thread on the same day i got mine done? now your stressing me out too LOL.
I was suppose to do dandy exhaust the first time but this place was half the price SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Just pray that yours is ok or else you'll be crying!
depends on what u got done... if u got the apexi WS2 universal muffler, they woulda had to fab up the pipe that goes over the control arm and the flange, but if it was just a cut of the old axle back an weld this onto the existing piping, i wouldnt worry to much... basically have a look under the car, if theres massive blotches of welded material, than its a shit job of a weld... or too little of it......it has to be a constant thickness of weld material all around for it to be a good solid weldQuote:
Originally Posted by SuperJDM.
welding is like painting, theres no real easy way to go about it when u do it by hand... and a prime example was the one the op showed
Quote:
Originally Posted by mugen_ctr
i got new piping from the cat, so i got a custom cat installed and from there new 2.5" piping all the way to the apexi WS2
New update: I went to Ringwood Performance exhaust today and they spent some time rewelding the back muffler part and tidied up some welds. Cost me $100, drove out and it's still making the noise! They said the noise is coming out of the muffler.
I then drove to Modproject for them to have a look and he reckons it might be my metal cat. I'm so confused!
Basically now I have the option to replace my muffler to an aftermarket one. I had changed the muffler to a stock EK4 one and it was still doing the same thing. I would take this approach if I believe that my DC2R muffler or EK4 can't handle the flow.
Change my cat to a ceramic one, i'm hesitant to do this cause my Magnaflow metal cat is brand new! I paid quite a lot of money for it.
Would there be a possibility this is coming from my Hot Dog resonator which the exhaust shop put in? How would I be able to tell of this is the problem?
Anyone heard of magnaflow metal cats making vibration buzzing noise at certain rpms?
3500rpm?Quote:
Originally Posted by nightkids
Nope at 2500rpm for me. I have read that a few pol with 350Zs have rattles with a certain brand of metal cats.
I'm spewin' cause I read somewhere on ozhonda that a guy had problems with a stock muffler and aftermarket exhaust but I can't find that post anymore!
When you decelerate at that rpm (no foot on gas), can you still hear it?
Nope it's only under acceleration but for me to really get the noise the gas pedal would be more than half in (semi-flooring it)
Bump this up
check all heat shields? I ended up removing all of mine to try and isolate it
I also found last time it happened to me it turned out to be little balls of metal from the bad welds that had heated up and broken on the inside
sounded like a bunch of rice being shaken inside a tin can
I actually don't have any heat shields left on my car... there was something in the cat that was rattling and that's already been removed by Ringwood Performance Exhaust...
Its hard to tell man if it is infact the cat, since they pretty much chucked in a whole one piece pipe.... it would been heaps easier had they actually made it into a 3 piece cat back and not a single piece... worse comes to worse, u might need to hack up the exhaust and have a look inside with a torch to see if anything wrong.... Or u could get them to cut it up an weld up some flanges, but thats even more $$$$.... an buy that time, u coulda gotten a proper 2nd hand cat back system like buddy clubQuote:
Originally Posted by NightKids
What do you think if I got a place to reweld my standard cat back on to see if it still does it?
Do you reckon that might be worthwhile? That way I can use like a process of elimination...
reweld? arn't cats meant to be bolted on both sides?Quote:
Originally Posted by NightKids
When cats get to a certain tempreature they will explode, if a less tempreature they will get damaged. (heat makes thing expand)
unless you have a flex pipe right infront of it.
my exhaust speaclist nearly welded my mouth when i said 'just weld the cat to the exhaust'. He said "you don't know how dangerous it is", i forgot what else he told me, he talked for ages.
then a guy off this forum Doug (4shizz) told me the exact same thing, he scared the crap out of me. but he was like "all good, you have a flex pipe right infront of it".
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2091/dscn1630t.jpg
what color was the cat orginally when you bought it? was it silver? or dark bronze like on your picture?
No it was pure silver. It turned to this colour pretty quickly but I thought it was normal.
Other exhaust places haven't said anything about it so far... do you think there's a problem there?
It originally looks like this...
http://static.summitracing.com/globa...-59955_w_m.jpg
if you still have the old flange, go have a good look at itQuote:
Originally Posted by NightKids
its not just a flange with bolt mounting stuff around it
it has a pivot that fits onto the cat, made for some odd reason.
tommorow when you get time, call up an exhaust shop, someone who knows there shit. tell them what happens if i weld the cat straight onto the exhaust, without the flange.
i forgot what my dude said but it was important.
but yeah i have a 90% feeling that your cat is damaged now.
you dont seem to have this extra flange thing @ the front of the cat that connects to the header. the man cut it of my old cat leaving it hanging from the header then welded the cat onto that.
Ill take a picture of it tomorrow if you want. Also my cat still looks silver :S maybe yours is getting too hot?
isnt that his flexi pipe there? that big thing on the right
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5278/dscn1631g.jpg
that
Yeah but it has to be right infront of the cat, to survive.
the flex pipe will act like the flange's pivot, and the flange is welded directly to the cat.
so thats hows the flex pipe has to be, directly welded to the cat.
So u guys reckon my cat is gone now because of this? I'll check out the old cat and see what you guys are talking about...
Can u post up a pic of your setup if possible superjdm.
I've checked out some clips of damaged cats on YouTube and it sounds like marbles rattling inside but mine sounds pretty quiet when free revved...
your cats the same colour as mine now, now im scared too.
http://i54.tinypic.com/2m7f2at.jpg
red = Cat
blue = that thing i said you dont have @ the end of the cat
hey man seriously if you haven't ruled out the resonator definitely get it checked, my exhaust did the same thing and this was the problem, I know I said it before but it'd really be worth it even if it's fine at least you know it's not it so you can cross it off the list.
good luck man :)
get the resonator checked like Super-DA9 said iv see alot of the internal perferated tube collapse causing a zinggy sound at certain rpm.
Your cat is of the Spun range of MANGNAFLOW cats, spun cats are known to have the insides to become loose due to excessive heat! now what mite of happen is your car has run real hot (by the looks of it in the pic) and expanded and didnt retract to its original size. This causes it to vibrate or rattle at certain rpm.
Just went to Dandy Exhausts today and they reckon it's because the resonator isn't big enough to handle the resonance. They quoted me $120 to put a much larger resonator on which will solve this problem.
How can I check whether my current resonator is ok or not? I mean I can't hear any rattling when it's free revving.
If it's the cat problem you're referring to bights then does that mean my cat is stuffed? I paid quite a lot of money for this thing!
yes it does mean the cat would be stuffed but there is a quick fix to metalic cats.
My cat doesn't really make a noise when you hit it though... i'm kinda leaning towards needing a bigger resonator. What do you think?
Could be resonator, they should be a few 2nd hand ones around. I think I still got my buddyclub resonator
Just run a straight through pipe :p. Wouldn't be that loud heheheh
get a 18" resonator like me
Where did you get your resonator from? And how much did it cost you?
ebay from USA, i think it was 100 forgot now, i got a cat too so it was cheaper
Is your cat magnaflow like mine? Can ya link me to the resonator? Cheers...
dont listen to ppl saying dont run a resonator LOL... its makes a huge difference to sound level an quality of sound... on my custom b-pipe, they welded on a pretty decent sized one, ill tryn get picks for u for referencing and measurements, its quite as a mouse on idle, loud on WOT, but i plan on changing to a 5zigen b-pipe soon, that has 2 resonators on it to quieten it down even more, i think my neighbours hate me starting up the car 6.30 in the morning lol..
Yeah i'm not really planning to run the car without a resonator. Can you check for me how big ur res is? Thanks
In the end it will still sound like a honda, just delete the res.
I havent read through most of the thread (first page and this page only) so if this has been mentioned my bad.
My car doesnt have a flexpipe but rather the spring between the Cat/mid seciton of exhaust. One of the springs shake at about the same rpm range as you said in first page. If you have a flex pipe, diregard this. =]
Thanks for your help! I don't actually have a spring only the flexi pipe. They replaced my rear muffler one with a flange.
late reply man, been busy the last couple days... but heres mine, pretty clean welds, an its not too loud when driving around, only when WOT its loud as...... Size wise its around 12 inch long, and 2.5, hope this helps :)
Attachment 18138Attachment 18137
Wow that does look clean! Thanks for the pics, I'll try to get a resonator that's more than 12 inches
are those factory welds or? if not where did you get it done and how much?
just my local exhaust place, A1 Exhausts, i think there a franchise, the guys are pretty friendly, an all... even though they dont know there stuff in regards to small capacity engines lol.. but like wise there work is good My custom b-Pipe was all up $220, custom made and fitted, as at the time no one had a prefabbed b pipe, so i bit the bullet and opted to go custom
Nah there not factory welds, they look close to it though lol
ok i got up to page 4 and was like meh
but heres my experience:
my car has a D15b7 with D16a6 Cam and D16z6 Intake Manifold
i have ES engine mount inserts and an engine torque damper
i was using stainless 4-2-1 headers with the stock exhaust and a Fujita CAI
i decided to get the exhaust done and this is the setup my mechanic helped me get
Magnaflow Metal Hi-Flow Cat > 2.5" stainless catback w/one hotdog resonator > Xforce S12 Oval Twinloop Muffler
mine makes the buzzing/rattling/metal sound from 4000k onwards
after extensive tests on the road, jacks and hoist we have narrowed down the sound to the cat and the area around it
also i dont have a flex pipe - just the flange and spring loaded bolts
which could also be my problem because i dont think the springs have any 'spring' left in them lol
i still havnt gotten around to sorting it yet - but ill let you know when i do
Yeah let me know how it goes down. When u say onwards does it mean it stays there cause mine disappears after the rpm range....
yeah mine is from about 4500-5000 until redline - most noticable in this area tho
Hmm interesting, wonder if it's something to do with resonance.
Will be very interested to know your findings.
yeah just waiting for my mechanic to get some free time to do my brakes - and hes gona have a listen to it when he takes it for a drive to test them
he built the catback himself using full quality stainless steel and his welding was almost perfect - cant complain for $140 for the headers, $40 for the muffler and $250 for the catback fitted lol - ah D series engines - so cheap and easy lol
my thoughts is that its either the join from the headers to the cat - possibly the spring loaded bolts not up tight enough - or it needs a flex pipe there
or it could be either the cat or the 'hot-dog' resonator acting up
I've pinpointed it to those two things also, but hard to tell what either one is without spending more money!