New cat's rattling!

[Scot_94GT]

You may or may not remember about a month ago my thread about putting on a set of BBK LT's and catted h-pipe. Well....now after a month or less of driving, one of the cats has a nasty sounding rattle coming from the inside.

I called Summit to get it replaced and the rep I talked to was pretty cooperative. He said that I could fill out the return form on the invoice, send the old part to them and then they would send me out a new h-pipe. However, this would leave me with an undrivable car for a couple weeks, and sicne it's my daily driver, that was not acceptable. I explained this to the rep, and he told me that they could send out a new one, and charge me the $350 for it, but then refund me $350 plus whatever UPS shipping cost happens to be when I send them my old one back to them.

I have no doubt that they will send me a new h-pipe in a timely fashion (the rep said it would ship first thing monday), but I am worried that they might try to find some BS excuse to not refund my money (the second $350, that is).

I will keep you guys posted, since many of you probbably order stuff from Summit. This could either turn into a testament to Summit's great customer suervice, or a rant of their horse***** service...we'll see.

I am more dissapointed though in BBK. I thought their products were supposed to be top notch. Welds breaking loose inside a cat/muffler after less than a month is NOT what I would call good quality control.

 

[Scot_94GT]

Just an update to my story...

I returned the original h-pipe, and got the new one. It worked for a bout 2 weeks, then it started to rattle again. I was prety pissed at this point. I think this one may have been damamged in shipping or something though, since there was a dent in one of the cats. I took the h-pipe off and inspected it. There was a large chunk of something loose inside, not surpizingly, it was the dented cat that was rattling. I called back and had them send a replacement again. I am on my 3rd h-pipe, and hopefully this one will hold up. So far, it has. It has been through 2 AutoX's, and a couple months of daily driving, and no rattling yet. Summit has pretty good customer service.

 

[will_95gt]

Weird

Weird, i just put a BBK h-pipe with cats on my 95gt yesturday and so far no problems. Hopefully it stays that way.

 

[Scot_94GT]

Weird, i just put a BBK h-pipe with cats on my 95gt yesturday and so far no problems. Hopefully it stays that way.

Well...I'm pretty sure the second one was rattling due to the dent in the cat. Must have been crushed in shipping or something. And possibly the first one was a fluke. But if my third one rattles, I am going to just put some mufflers back on and get an O/R h-pipe.

 

[mo_dingo]

That is why I prefer no cats at all.....
Scott

 

[urban96]

o/r prochamber w/flows=

 

[final5-0]

I ran a Bassani cat x-pipe for shortys with my other combo for about two years. After they had been on for about a year one of them started to rattle. The rep at Bassani said that they did not have too many do that but ever once in a while it can happen. He had it fixed for free.

I think it is the same no matter who you get the cats from.

Over the years I've been on these forums, you see these kinds of threads pop up every now and then.

Later
Grady

 

[Scot_94GT]

Then I must have really bad luck, because I had 2 in a row rattle.

 

[1TRIKGT]

Hey Scot Iv got a question for you or anyone else that might know whats wrong, I think or at least hope that its one of my cats that is rattling. For the last two days Iv been hearing a rattling noise from my tranny area but its not constent its on and off so far and its only when im on the gas, when I let off it stops. Could this be a bad cat or do I need to look into my tranny, also my throwout bearing is squeeking could this somehow be causing something to rattle?

 

[mo_dingo]

Hey Scot Iv got a question for you or anyone else that might know whats wrong, I think or at least hope that its one of my cats that is rattling. For the last two days Iv been hearing a rattling noise from my tranny area but its not constent its on and off so far and its only when im on the gas, when I let off it stops. Could this be a bad cat or do I need to look into my tranny, also my throwout bearing is squeeking could this somehow be causing something to rattle?

First of all, the TOB squeeking is a very common problem. It could only have an effect on the release lever, or maybe a pressure plate finger, but I highly doubt it. Unfortunately, you need to replace the entire clutch assembly. I would recommend the king cobra kit, it has a good TOB in it. When you are ready to install it, PM me, and I will give you some tips to ensure a trouble free TOB for many years.

My friend John had a cat that the front screen was knocked out, and it made his exhaust super quiet. It almost sounded like a turbo car.

Here is a great way to isolate it. Get a stethoscope (AZ has them I think), jack the car up, start it, locate the sounds as close as you can, then use the stethoscope to isolate it. My guess is it will get louder as soon as you get it near one of the cats. The stethoscope will isolate the sound, so check the trans and other areas, but I still think it's a cat-related issue and will be loudest when on one of the cats.
Scott

 

[final5-0]

When I had the prob, you could push in the clutch and rev the motor to cause the noise.

Later
Grady

 

[HISSIN50]

and most of the time, one can punch the cat housing to make the matrix rattle (if it lost a tack weld or 10 and is loose).

Good luck.

 

[Scot_94GT]

Hey Scot Iv got a question for you or anyone else that might know whats wrong, I think or at least hope that its one of my cats that is rattling. For the last two days Iv been hearing a rattling noise from my tranny area but its not constent its on and off so far and its only when im on the gas, when I let off it stops. Could this be a bad cat or do I need to look into my tranny, also my throwout bearing is squeeking could this somehow be causing something to rattle?

Drive the car on ramps, get under it, and hit the cat with the side of your fist. Or you could just kick the tailpipe sideways. When I did either of those two things, the cat would rattle.

As for the TO bearing squeaking...
I had a squeak coming from my clutch somewhere, that would only squeak when the clutch was out, and my foot was off the pedal. As soon as I barely toutched the clutch pedal, the squeaking would stop. I assumed it was the TO bearing and bought a King Cobra clutch kit to put in when I removed the tranny. It turns out the TO bearing and clutch and pressure plate were all fine. The squeaking was coming from the ball joint on the release arm/fork. It was dry of grease. So that may be your only problem. But since pulling the tranny is such a PITA, you might throw in a king cobra clutch just for fun (they're only about $200), since it will hold more power, and has a lighter throw.