Annoying Rattling
 

ok i am about o kill myself from the rattling coming from my exhaust. I have the stillen exhaust which i ha dinstalled on my stock cats, recently i got the Berks which i love, great sound and power but idk if its the cats or what but after i installe dthem i was having a rattling noise. I took the car back to where i had them installed and it seemed that the hfc's made the y pipe on the stillen exhaust hang lower and rattling against a chassis support there is down there, fine i had them use a crowbar to push the y-pipe up a bit and problem solved, or so i thought. Then, when i would go over certain bumps on the street the y pipe would hit it and make a rattling noise again so i ended up buying thermal wrap and warapping it around the area that was rattling to make it tight against the chassis support which worked fine at first but there is STILL something rattling down there sometimes and its driving me nuts. Could there be a heat shield or piece of metal hitting the exhaust, has anyone else had this problem, its seriously killing me and i want to figure it out. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Btw i have looked under the car while it is on and i cant see anything rattling due to when the car is in idle it never rattles so i have no clue. :icon14: :shakes head:

I have a berk cbe and have a similar rattle going on. The rattle hits around 4K rpm. Can't track it down and so I just learned to live with it.

exhaust-rattle-start-up-only

If that does not describe your problem, I have also had the issue where the rattle is coming from the exhaust sitting so close to the rear brace and the vibration from the exhaust hums off the metal of the brace. The issue got even worse after I installed the Nismo brace kit as there is another brace back there that the exhaust sits even closer to. 99.9% of the time however, the sound goes away once everything is heated up.

Also, if you break your post up into several lines it will make it much easier to read :tiphat:

lol sorry i should havedone that, and yeah ones warmed up i do hear it less, but it bothers me to pay for something that is supposed to be top quality and makes my car have problems. Oh well guess ill have to live with it or change the hfc's.

Also you guys should try doing what i did ith the thermal wrap it really did help a lot.

This is a problem with the Topspeed exhaust also. The solution is to install washers on top of that brace to lower it a bit. It should give you that little bit of extra clearance that you need to fix the issue.

Ill give that a shot

^Still CBE and Berk HFC's here also and this is what i have to a tee.^

I guess the berk HFC's arent meant to go with the stillen CBE. I just hate to hear that rattling i have a 42k dollar car that sounds like something is broken.

So I took yalls advice and put two washers where the crossbar is and the rattling is gone!!!

I'm so glad it's done now the Z sounds like it's supposed to.

Thanks for the advice guys :tup:

Hell yea i was going to wrap the exhaust but the washers sounds great! what size does anyone know?

Also did you guys remove all 10 bolts from left to right on the rear brace? or just the center 4 on both sides? Thanks

I honestly don't remember the size of the washer but I think it was 1/2 inch. Also you don't have to remove all the bolts just the middle ones but it will make it easier.

Btw I used double washers just cause I did not want to have to get under the car again but don't forget that it should cause a bit more stress on the crossbar.

im going to probably use three but ill see when i get down there thanks. Also I bought 5/16" washers if they work I will let you guys know so the next guy wont have to guess :)

Those worked great I ended up using 4 on each bolt (may seem excessive but i didn't want to have to redo it later!) and no vibration or rattle noise at all I'm so happy with exhaust now!!!!!!!!!!

I'll have to check my HKS out, I have the same raddle going on with my nismo, it starts around 4K while the engine is under load. It won't do it if I just rev the engine, just during acceleration. I was starting to think it had something to do with the engine vibration being transfered to the exhaust. I'd love to get this corrected.

its probably the same thing on my nismo the metal beam a little further back from the y-pipe section. i put 4 washers on each bolt in between the metal bar and the car and its perfect gave me about 1/2" - 1" gap no more annoying rattle.

Does anyone have any pictures of this brace that the washers are going on??

It's black flat piece of metal right in front of the wheels you can't miss it. I don't have pics though

Does this seem to be a problem with all full cbe exhaust or just one that sit closer to this "brace"?

Only certain brands.

The brace you are looking for is the black brace that is near the rear-center of the car. You can see it really well in this pic (found online). There are (4) bolts that attach the front of this brace that can have washers added to give the exhaust more clearance in this area.
http://www.the370z.com/members/ritdr...5645-image.jpg
I personally used (3) stainless fender washers under each of these bolts this weekend, and it made a HUGE improvement in the rattle issue I was having. I honestly think my Ark DTS was resting on this brace slightly after I added Berk HFC's. It rattled a ton and basically sounded like crap until I added the washers. Now I love to drive my car again! :driving:

I wrapped the exhaust and put high temp rubber on the cross member, worked like a charm!

Evidently the Berk HFC's are too long and cause the exhaust to sit just a BIT too low to the cross member

One of out local guys said he jacked the car up, put 2 jackstands (1 per each exhaust tube) under the exhaust and lowered the car just a BIT, bent the pipes up a hair, problem solved. he's done it to several Z's in our area, no complaints

Installed my Berk HFC/CBE setup and have this problem. Glad I found this thread! I will do the washer trick this weekend. Wish I had known this would be an issue or I would have fixed it during installation.

It could be the hangers that hold your exhaust together.

I may have to try this, sometimes when I hit a certain rpm I get a nasty rattle for a second, I thought maybe it was a heat shield that was vibrating.


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I had that too Huck, turned out to be my license plate rattling against the body! Only happened from 3600-3900 rpm.

An easy fix that I did for my Berk cbe was to take some pipe clamps and put them over the rubber grommets on the hangers and crank them tight. A jack was used to lift the exhaust prior to tightening them up. It gave me a fingers width clearance from the brace and has been good now for the past 6 months.

Thanks for the input! This IMO is a better fix than adding washers to the cross member bolts.... :tup:

I just finished doing exactly as you described and it worked to perfection!! A quick 20 min fix and no more rattles for me!!! Thanks again! :tiphat:

I have been wondering about that too, although it sounds like its coming from under the car. I'll do some 3M double tape and stick it on there, then see if that fixes it.


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new-fangled science stuff

I was going crazy trying to figure out where it was coming from! I really thought it was something underneath too, I even got under and took out the heat shield above the mufflers trying to eliminate any possibilities. In the end I used automotive grade 3m double stick and did my plate and my plate frame, and now its gone!

Well then I'm doing this when I get home and trying it out lol.


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What exactly and where do I got to put or what to insta I know washers but are we talking about bolt washers and put them qhere. Please help