I've been trying to pinpoint a grinding noise I hear coming from the rear end of my 1991 CRX Si. It only seems to happen when I first start the car and give it a little gas out of the driveway/parking spot in the monring, or if it has been sititng un-running and parked for about 30mins or more. It continues to sound when i drive away from said spots and make any turns in the following 30secs-1min. It sounds like a grinding noise, not high-pitched but rather low in note.

Now, I started to notice this sound only after I had a professional muffler shop install an RSR exmag exhaust on the CRX, and it's been consistant since. I have noticed that the exhaust hangers in the rear and near the rear pass wheel/gas tank look a bit worn and are hanging pretty low and stretched-like. I went under the car and shook the exhaust and it does indeed look like the exhaust pipe over the rear pass control arm and near the gas tank can be pushed over to hit the gas tank, and it produces a similar pitch to the groaning/clunking noise I'm describing.

However, if this were the cause of the noise, would it not occur almost every time I took a sharp/spirited turn in the right direction to hit the tank?

After all that is said.... would a set of newer or stiffer exhaust hangers help out? Or am I not correct in my exhaust hitting the gas tank theory? Could it just be the exhaust "warming up" or something?

Does anyone else have similar sounds happening? Is this normal for a CRX after it has exhaust installed?

This never happened with the RSR exmag I had installed on my DC2 integra, so any thoughts here?

Thanks.

 

could it possibly be hitting the heat shield anywhere?

 

Hmmm, never thought about that. It's definitely possible, but the noise is coming from the rear end of the car for sure.

Is there a heat shield back there?

 

actually mine is KINDA doing the same thing, but what i found was it was the actual exhaust hanger itself. it was hitting part of the suspension in the rear. just kinda bent the hanger down a little bit and that solved it.

 

Oh? Which hanger was it that was hitting?

I may try it tomorrow...

 

I checked the hangers today, all seem to be just fine. but i did notice that there is one hanger on the car, the third down the line starting in the back, that is not attached to the exhaust. There is no spot on the exhaust to attach it to.

I'm sure this has something to do with it.

Might be a good idea to take it to a muffler shop and have them add a hanger to the exhaust so I can hang it on there?

 

that sucks.

 

yeah basically.