Miata Mailing List: March 1995, Message #113
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   From: fbro@innet.be (Frank Brochoven)
Subject: Re: rattling, heat shield?
   Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 11:26:59 -0500

On Wed, March 1, J. Virkki wrote : 

>Hello all,
>
>Well after some 24K miles my Miata quite suddenly developed a very
>loud, metallic rattle.  From the traffic on this list I believe it
>must be the infamous heat shield.  It occurrs at almost exactly
>3500rpm, nowhere else.  And while it is a very hard sound to place, to
>the best of my guess it seems to come from the general area of the
>down pipe so that fits too.  I haven't looked much into it, just too
>cold out there still!! ;-( Anyway, what's the best way to approach the
>problem, remove the shield or what?  I seem to recall the culprit is
>the shield of the downpipe, not the header shield or the ones furher
>down, correct?

Bibi had the same trouble around the same 24K mile period. It was the day 
before I left for Scotland on vacation. I didn't know what it was. It 
bothered me tremendously driving thru the Scottish scenery!! 
I drove around with ti for about 3 weeks. Then I took it to the dealer and 
he rewelded it. No problems since... Getting a new piece would be nice but 
maybe it'll happen again in another 24K miles... when the car is out of 
warrantee.

>BTW, it's interesting to note that I find it impossible to replicate
>the rattle in my garage!  When driving, it will never fail to rattle
>@3500rpm.  It's not speed dependent either, since I can always produce
>it by revving up to 3.5K while stopped at a light or whatever.  Once I
>get in the garage however... nothing.  Almost as if it knew that at
>that moment I can try to pinpoint the source, so it decides not to
>make any noise!  Weird. 

Could be that the vibrations reflected by the walls of your garage is the 
cause. 

Keep the revs up!

Frank
 
______________________________________

Frank and Bibi (Voodoo wannabee)
Antwerp, Belgium


"Messin' me up with your voodoo" - Ween