Rasping
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I've got a rasping noise coming from the front of my car when I rev the engine. The noise seems to be coming from the downpipe and stops after the car warms up. My brother (who drives an MX-5) thinks that it could be a loose heat shield as he had a similar problem with his car and says I should just remove it. He says this wil be okay as long as I dont run the car and then park it in dry grass :? . Anyone else got any ideas or is he right?
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could be the heatshield. Hard to tell without hearing it lol
But runnin the car without a heat shield will be fine. Even if you did park it on dry grass it still wouldnt catch fire!
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Heatshields are pretty fragile on Xedos exhausts, so they might be on MX3s as well, so that could be a good bet.
Don't want to worry you, but catalytic converters can make a raspy/ rattly kind of noise when they break down inside. Left alone, it can take out the rest of the system downstream as parts of it get blown through so it might be worth a look.
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Hopefully its not the CAT because I just had my car MOT'd and the emissions test results are no different from last year. I'm going to put it up on the ramps this Friday and remove the heatshield to see if that helps. (Fortunatly for me I've got access to a fully loaded garage with all the tools I'd ever need because my stepdad just built himself an AC Cobra replica with a very nice 6 litre V8 in my mums garage :D ). Anyone know if there are any problems to watch out for when removing the heatshield?
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Looking at the exploded view of the exhaust system in the manual it doesn't seem to be a problem, it's only held on by hex headed self tappers. There is a stern sentence that says "NOTE: The insulator cannot be removed" though. Make of that what you will.