Rattling sound from inside my carsound cat. It's only about 3 months old. Sounds like the element inside came loose or something. I tapped on the cat. itself and I heard something rolling around.

Do I need to just replace the cat.? thanks!

 

Your cat has gone kaput. Replace ASAP. Has happened 2x to me so I know all about the sound it makes. My second one (catco) was totally (and cleanly) gutted, but I replaced it to pass the emissions test. Sounds like a rock is in there, but we know that that is impossible. Eventually the rattling stopped on mine, I guess because the rest of the catalyst got blown out the exhaust. What hapened? Was your car running too rich?


[Modified by brinks, 2:30 PM 2/14/2002]

 

yeah..it shouldnt rattle at all...it coming apart..you might notice some power loss if it start to clog...time to bore it out..haha

 

Have you taken a look yet? It could also be your cats heatshield coming loose, if so just weld it back on.

 

I second Mike's answer. I got a Carsound cat for my old Si and that thing rattled like a ****...

I sold it before I welded the heat shields, but I noticed that they were loose.

Check out this thread for the pics...

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=107993

 

Not the head shiled; because I can tap on the cat, and the vibration keeps going to a little bit after, like something is rolling around. I checked the heat shield and it seems firmly attached.

 

Your cat is finished, the sound is the catalyst rattling around in there. Same thing happened to me. Your check engine light will be on soon, so you might as well look into getting another one now.

 

I've actually heard about a couple of cases of this happening to people with carsound cats...

 

That's what you get for going to school in Arizona. What you're hearing is one of these:

 

damn!!!! that sucks!!!! a $165 cat and 3 months later the cat gets eaten up?? aftermarket junk!!!! who else has had this problem, this makes me think twice before getting a carsound cat!

 

actually very common with Random cats, Probably all aftermarket high flow cat material are made by the same company.

 

I've had a couple cats of customers break apart, they were not any of the 09/99 manufacturered cats that were defective. I have been trying to get Car Sound to look into this and I did get a response from them today so hopefully we'll be able to give you guys something soon.

 

Have you heard back on this SMSP? I was just about ready to buy a carsound cat.. in fact I think I emailed you about ordering one. I'm a little concerned now.

I thought the Randomtech cats were questionable, but not the carsounds..

 

Mine rattles but I checked the heat shields and they were fine

 

Yeah, Speedpak and I noticed the rattling sound on his ITR after we ran it a this past Sundays Speedtrial at BW! The first thing we thought it was the heat shield but later heard this was common for Carsound cats.

The rattle isn't bad now but will it get worse? Seems as though it's worse when the car is cold but when warm its not as pronounced. I checked the heat shield today and it was loose but was not contacting the piping! I didn't know then to check the cat itself.

 

Ugh! I remember reading this post, thinking to myself that I got lucky, but I just realized mine is rattling now as well. Damn! I've had mine on for about 3 months. I was in my garage revving to see when it rattles, and it starts at about 1200RPMS and it peaks (=P) at 1500 RPMS. SMPS, if you can find out something that will help. I don't want it to get any worse, or maybe.....do you know, not to sound cheap (even though I'm poor) if R&D has a warranty of any type on these considering I got it from Dave?

Thanks!!!

 

I've sent another email to my CarSound rep with this and the other current Car Sound threads.

I'll be the point man for information about this subject. If anyone has purchased a cat recently that they have had a problem with, please send me an email with the following info, even if you didn't purchase it from me.

Carsound Model Number
Date Code (on bottom of cat in **/** format), we know the 09/99 cats had problems
Engine Type and Year
NA or FI
Where you purchased it from and when? (any replacements, if covered, would have to be handled through the business where it was purchased I believe)
How many miles on the cat?
Have the fuel maps been dyno tuned with a VAFC, Hondata, etc. or are you running the stock ECU?
What is the problem? i.e. rattling heat shield, broken cat material (brick), if the brick broke can you see straight through the cat?, CEL

 

I am positive that the heatshields are loose... I once had that problem with my Carsound car after the same period -- 3 months! I hit the cat when the car was on a hoist, and it does indeed rattle as if it was something inside that was loose. I discovered shortly after that the edge of the two stamped pieces of heat shield were loose and not the bricks inside, and I had it welded and the noise was gone.

Dave @ SMSP should remember me emailing him for a new Cat...but I stopped ordering it because it was just the heatshield and not the bricks inside.

 

You are right, heat shields have been causing the majority of the problems but I've been putting at least 10 tack welds down each side of the cat since July/August of last year. I don't know what the other shops are doing. I've had 2 come back with broken bricks since the problems we've encountered with the 09/99 cats, which were known to have a problem. Since my 2 cats is too a small data set to confirm an overall problem I'll need more information from the other suppliers to give Car Sound to help in determining a cause.

 

Carsound Model Number (#94006) (Control #B 314512)
Date Code (08/00)
Engine Type and Year (B18C5 / 2001)
NA or FI (N/A)
Where you purchased it from and when? (SMSP / 8-2001)
How many miles on the cat? (10,890 miles, as of today)
Have the fuel maps been dyno tuned (stock ECU... no dyno time... no VAFC)
What is the problem? (CEL #67, once about 4 months ago, again about 3 months ago, and now twice in the past two days)

No rattles, loose welds, or damaged honeycomb.

Funny (funnier than the normal "funny" when compared to stock) smell when the CEL is lit.

William
-who may just put the stock stuff back on...

 

Yea something was rattling under my car...looked underneath and the nuts and bolts that connected the jdm 4:1 and the Carsound cat were sitting there spinning. I tightened them up that day. But 2 weeks later I get a check engine light...its like 91, 92, or 82...its blinks 9 times slow and then 1 fast. I thought it could be my map sensor because I put my strut bar on backwards(skunk2 intake manifold) and it just cleared the map sensor..or so I thought...if any one knows the code I'd appreciate it...Oh yea..I bought mine from R&D also...

 

This makes 2 CEL 67s and the other car was a 2001 or 2000. Mike from IPS told me he thought there was a change in the ECUs in 2000 and they now have a newer OBDII version running OBDII.1?? and maybe it is just a little more finicky. I really think a test pipe should be used for the high speed track events, especially when running on the stock ECU.

Is there anyone out there who has had the cat for a long time and uses a test pipe for track events?

 

ttt