Couple of noises

[SaxKeen]

I know absolutely nothing about cars so hopefully you guys can help. I have a few wierd noises going on at the moment, first one is a vibration noises when reving or in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear, the vibration noise happens at about 3,000 revs if i keep it there the vibration just stays, speed up it goes etc but its only when i hit 3,000 revs.

The other one happens about 10/20 mins into driving, there seems to be a squeeking noises, like a loose belt sort of noise, it doesn't go away when i put the clutch in, but it slows down when i slow down, speeds up when i speeds up. If i speed up quickly it will stop then until i stay at a constant speed.

Anyone know what these could be and ways in which to solve them, are they serious and would i need to take it to a garage to get checked out, just incase.

Thanks alot

[babers]

first one sounds like your heat sheild just take that off and the second sounds like you need new brake pads.

[SaxKeen]

When i bought it (a month ago) he said the pads have just been replaced..

Ive had people say the heatshield, for the exhaust yeah? i couldn't find it cos i know nothing, a picture would be very helpfull!

The squeeking sounds like a belt noise, you know that certain pitch of sqeek and everything

[CDR]

Hi,

This is my first post - and I have exactly the same noise/rattle issue at 3k. I tried removing the manifold heat shield and it made no difference. Then I removed the heat shield about the cat/exhaust - still no difference.

If you manage to solve it, or if anyone else has any suggestions on what the problem is - pleaseeee let me know!

Thanks!

[thoms04]

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[CDR]

Hey thanks for your reply. I have a 2000 VTS.
I will give moving the centre box a go, but it actually seems that the noise isn't there when the car is stationary - just when going along, and it's worse when letting off the accelerator during engine braking.

I searched the forum and it seems a lot of people had this problem caused by the cat heat shield... isn't this the heat shield attached to the chassis above the cat? If so that is what I tried removing.

[thoms04]

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[CDR]

Thanks again for your reply.

I don't feel anything unusual from the accelerator pedeal, I just hear the noise which sounds like a rattle/vibration. I will have a look underneath again around the cat area and the middle box.

[SaxKeen]

I think ive found out what that noise could be, ive been told its resin build up in the exhuast, all it needs is a change and apparently there will be no annoying noise at 3k

Which gives me a good excuse to go out and get a new exhaust system me thinks :)

Hopefully this is the solution :y:

[CDR]

I recently fitted a new exhaust system - it made no difference :n:

[CDR]

Last night I found the ecu seemed to be loose - if I tapped it, it was making a noise, so I secured that first.

I tightened the bolt holding the downpipe to the gearbox (to be honest it was already pretty tight).

Then I took the cat off, gave it a shake, and found it has a slight rattle. So then I gave it a good shake, and a few bits came out...I continued until there was no more rattle noise, and to be honest - not that much came out.

I also noticed that the mid silencer was pretty close to the heat shield above it, so as a temporary measure - I jammed some wire wool between them. Convinced that the noise would be gone, I got back in - drove off, and low and behold - no bloody different!! Argghhhh!!

I started thinking that maybe it's the gear linkage. Found that in neutral at standstill at one moment it would not make the noise, then slip into 1st or 2nd, clutch down, then it would make the noise....eureka - it's must be the gear linkage. Then tried again in neutal - WTF - it started making the same noise in neutral .... repeat a few times - no noise at all, even in gear???? Repeat a few more times - the noise is back..

Now I put it down to one of two things - the gear linkage, or the cat (even though there are no loose bits, maybe the whole ceramic part is moving about). I really don't want to shell out for a new cat though...

[CDR]

I solved it :y:
For me the problem was the gear linkage - specifically all the joints between the end of the main bar and the gearbox were too dry, so I applied high temp grease to all of them and hey presto - noise gone.

I came to the conclusion that 3000rpm is when there is some kind of resonant frequency - and that is when any noise will sound it's worse. It seems that many things can cause a rattle, and it just depends in your case what it specifically is. Here's a list of things I did:

Tightened manifold heat shield bolts
Temporarily removed Heat Shield above cat
Tightened downpipe-to-gearbox bolt
Tightened ECU fixings
Checked centre box was not knocking against heat shield (by temporarily placing wire wool between the two to stop any potential noise)
Removed cat, shook it furiously, and ensured no debris was rattling around
Checked gear linkages, and applied high temp grease to all joints (problem solved for me). The gear change on my car was still normal, if it was really sloppy then it would have made more sense to replace the linkage.


Hope this can help others to locate and solve their noises at ~3Krpm