I have had my pypes x pipe and dual exhaust in for a few months now. in the last few weeks i have been hearing a metallic rattling sound under heavy acceleration and when starting in first gear. the rattle seems to be coming from directly under the center console (where the crossover x pipe is), and it is definitly metal hitting metal of some kind. Ive taken it to 2 local exhaust shops and they cant find anything wrong with it. The one shop said maybe something got into the pipes somehow. I am assuming it is the exhaust rattling since it is coming from the area where the x pipe is and started after i put the dual exhuast on. Anyone have this problem or have any ideas to what it may be, or even better a solution? Before I drive an hour away to go to a very reputable custom exhuast speicality shop I figured Id ask here and see what I get.

 

Yea its definitly coming from up front. From inside the car it sounds like it is coming from directly under the area where the radio is. 2 exhuast shops have looked at it now and neither can figure it out.

 

When i got my duals the same thing had happened only it was coming from the back....i went under there my self and found a bit from the air gun lodged between the exhaust pipe and something that resembles a swaybar (i have an 05 so it doesnt come with the sway bars that were installed for 06-08's)

 

yeh i believe that was a tsb, even with the stcok exhaust set up. i think waht you have to do is buffer the rubber grommet that the hangers for the xpipe go through...i have the same problem in mine, just havent gotten it fixed yet

 

Is your Pypes X-Pipe welded or clamped? If clamped, there may be metal on metal contact inside the clamp that you might not be able to see? Also when I put on my catted H-Pipe from JBA, my catalytic converter material came lose and caused a very annoying rattle.(I gutted them) Just a few thoughts....

 

It is clamped. Im taking the car to an custom exhaust speciality shop next week and if they cant figure it out Im gonna have them take it apart to see if there is anything inside the pipes or something.

Do you have anymore info on this TSB. I might have to look into that as well. But Ive had this car for almost 3 years and it just started a few weeks back after the install of the dual exhuast so Im doubting that it is a factory problem but who knows.

 

Those are the only two problems I could think of when I put on my new H-Pipe. The cat rattle was mainly a JBA problem as I have read about it a few other times on this forum. Hope you find the rattle

 

Is the X-pipe a FRP one. I had a annoying rattle on acceleration around 1500 -2000 rpm. I checked the mounts from the tsb, but they were tight. I turned out that the passenger side clamp was loose on the X-pipe side. What I mean is that while the clamp was tightened as far as it would go it still was loose enough on the X-pipe where you could grab the mid pipe and shake it. Evidently when they formed the X-pipe they shrunk the diameter of the pipe just enought that the clamp wouldn't secure it. I wound up taking the clamp off and trying to use it with out the block, that goes between the split. That didnt work since that holds the bolts still. It the process of trying to figure out some way of getting it tighter I deformed the inner liner of the clamp. it was a pain to get it back on the mid pipe but after that no more rattle.

 

Nope, my x pipe is the Pypes Performance one. Im thinking that maybe somehow something may have gotten inside the pipe, or a little piece of metal fell off inside the pipe and that is what is rattling around.

 

Did you use the clamp that Pypes provides or did you purchase another?
About 3 weeks ago while crossing an intersection slow, I heard scraping noise....I knew it was the exhaust. As soon as I heard it, I pulled over to the next street and looked under my car. Sure enough the mid pipe slipped out.
My husband came to my rescue and rigged two coat hangers until I could get to the shop. The shop checked it out and the clamp was tight, it's just not as sturdy or well made like the Ford clamp. They put a tack weld until I can get another Ford clamp.
I know this may not be the cause of your rattle, but something you may want to think about.

 

I used the clamps that came with the kit. It only seems to rattle badly above 3000 RPMs otherwise you can barely hear it. Also when idleing sometimes it just randomly starts rattling badly, same noise coming from the same area (right under/behind the radio). So like I said i think there may be a piece of metal or something inside the x pipe that is rattling around. The only thing that doesnt make sense about that though is that when I put the car in neutral or in first (with the clutch in) and rev it up past 3000 RPMs there is not rattle at all.

 

sounds like there might be an object somewhere lodged in your exhaust. When I had rattle, you could not hear it at idle or with the clutch in. It was when I started to let the clutch out was when the sound started to rattle. Let us know after you head to the shop

 

That is exaclty how mine is as well. What was causing your rattle and how did you fix it? Im going to tray and get the car in the shop later this week, if they fix it Ill let you all know what was causing it and the solution.

 

I just bought JBA LT's and Catted H-Pipe and after I put them on i heard the rattle. I took off the H-pipe, shook it, and found the source of the rattle. It was chunks of that catalytic converter that was bouncing around inside the cat. I took a metal rod and gutted out the cats and the rattle was gone.

 

Had experience with similar rattles;

The first one was as mentioned a bit before was the rubber isolators just around the X pipe area (2, one on each side). If the pins comming from the pipes connecting inside this rubber isolator are not perfectly centered or too loose it will rattle. But normally this rattle is not the high pitch metalic, more like a heavy vibration. That's the one that is covered by "06-04-01 Centre Stack Rattle" see in the Warranty and Service issue thread.

The second source is normally at the mufflers themselves, in the back, I know that not where the sound is comming from but, by experience a lot of under the car sounds are comming in the cabin from the shifter or lower console area because of the lack of insulation in this area. So comming back to this other source of rattle I have seen a couple of cars where the pins from the exhaust are touching the car frame at high RPM or at low RPM under load, such as the beginning of the accelaration or with an automatic at idle with foot on the breaks. The problem is that the rear pin, most likely the passeneger side is sticking out too long from the rubber isolator (normally due to after installing market pipes that are a little longer than original) and when the exhaust vibrates too much it hits the frame slightly making that high pitch metal noise. To check this one, once your muffler is cold, grasp the tip and hake it very hard, left to right and back to front to verify clearance of the pins.

I know you will say my exhaust does not shake that much while driving but when accelarating the engine moves therefore very often changing a bit the position of the exhaust and moving it closer to other objects and then a slight bump or vibration and it touch something.

Finally alway verify that all the pins to hold exhaust components are well centered in the rubber isolators, you will see once you see one, if the pin is not center it removes the isolation design of this rubber isolator. Creating either vibrations, because the exhaust/engine vibration is not dampered or rattle because it's touching a metal part somewhere. And that I can say by experience whith a couple of mustangs.

If that's the case try loosening the muffler clamps and re-center the pins in the isolator, if you can't bend the pin slightly to align perfectly.

Good luck !

 

Well I just got the car back from the Ford dealer today. They seemed to have fixed most of the rattles, the main problem was in fact the Centre Stack TSB, which I printed off form this site and just gave the printout to them. They tightened everything on the exhaust and played around with the hangers as well and almost all of the rattling is gone now. Thanks for the help and suggestions guys!

 

Did they give you any grief for the exhaust mods? Was it covered under warranty or did you have to pay out of pocket because of the mods?

 

Not a single word about any of the mods. They covered all the workd under warranty, even though they had to do some tweaking to the exhaust. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I drive about an hour away to go to this Ford dealership(Matthews Paoli Ford). Its where I bought my car from and theyve been really good to me. Everyone there is very nice and knows what they are talking about. Theyre body shop guy is one of the best in the business and wont let anything leave the shop until you are 100% satisfied with it. All I had to pay for was my inspection, which I also got done since it was already in the shop. Theres a Ford dealership about 5 minutes down the road but I always drive the hour to go to this one.