First of all I would like to thank gernby and xviper for the information that helped me diagnose this problem. Thanks guys !!!

Last week my car exhibited a very annoying sound during 3-4K rpm, either accel or decel. Reading everything I could on the TSB for the tranny, rear wheel bearings, and CV joints failures, I tried diagnose the noise. Here is what I found.

The sound did not have a preference to which way I turned; thus, eliminating the wheel bearings. The sound can be reproduced by being parked, in NEUTRAL, and reving the engine slightly. This eliminated the diff, CV joints, and tranny. Last thing I checked was whether the noise was from the engine. Revved it at the throttle body and the noise was definitly from the rear of the car. Since all major drivetrain parts have been accounted for the only thing I could think of is the exhaust is rattling something under the car. Earlier in the week I got scraped and bruised up dissconnecting my cat and my Invidia exhaust, thinking that something was inside causing a rattle. To my dismay I could not find a thing.

Being extremely annoyed at the rattle, to the point that I don't want to drive the car anymore, I decided to pm gernby and xviper. Gernby suggested that I jack up the car, tighten the throttle body cable, so that the idle increases, causing the noise to occur and look under the car. Since I rarely have anyone help me work on my car this was perfect. Doing that, I at last found the culprit:

The INVIDIA name plate's weld came off !!!! Knowing that many Invidia owners say that there is a rattle coming from the rear, I wonder how many have the same problem as I. I do not know if this can be warrantied by Invidia or not. I might just go get it welded somewhere. Does anyone happen to know what type of weld the Invidia plate used? TIG? Regardless, here is a picture and again, thank you to gernby and xviper !!!

 

Thanks for the info. I'll be checking mine.

 

Interesting. Like I said when I P.M. you I think mine was coming from the brake shield.
I will check mine. It was absolutely driving me crazy also. Glad you found it.

 

Nice detective work. Glad you got the bottom of it and it wasn't any of the other stuff you feared.

 

Was your just spot welded on top and bottom its hard to from that picture. Mine has a fat bead from top to bottom connecting the Invidia plate to the exhaust tube. Its like a stack of dimes going the whole 2" arc on both sides. Maybe they spot welded yours and forgot to come back to complete the weld. Dimes to dollars that what happened!

 

I thought it was "Dollars to donuts"?

 

HHHEEEYYYYYYY

Something in the back of my car rattles between 4500 and 5000 - It sounds like its coming from the trunk and Ive been trying to narrow it down. I wonder if I too have this gremlin.

My exhaust has only been on the car for 200 miles though...brand new!

Ill check - thanks man.

 

your not the first. there is a local membor down here who had the same thing happen to him. it was so annoying on the highway....

 

I've also had an annoying rattle at 3-4k, I've found that the hanger hits my diff mount at certain rpms and creates this sound. It usually doesn't bother me anymore and by wiring both muffler canisters to the rear bumber bracket I've kept it from moving back and forth around corners etc. which also has helped.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by high on nine
Thanks for the info.