Rattle under the car, suspect exchaust hitting suspension?

[Anderson]

Hello all, so I came home from work, as I drove into the drive there's a little 2-3cm lip where the kerb is which naturally you drive slow over e.t.c and as I did , I noticed a quite a loud... rattle/thud? I stopped the car thinking it was probably something in the boot...but paranoia got the better of me so I had to go back out and test-drive the car and yes, there's now a clear rattle under the car, I suspected exhaust was the cause, perhaps something had broken off and now the exhaust is hanging or soemthing. So I got under and had a look, I found the exhaust to have a little bit of play when you move it up and down, and i dont really notice the sound I heard earlier but when you wiggle it side to side, there's quite a fair bit of play, a good 5-6cms. Is this normal? because when I do this... I can hear almost the same noise from earlier... and discovered that the heatsheild is loose in the center of the car but I don't think this is the problem as the exhaust "muffler" I think its called, is touching the rear suspension spring when you wiggle it side to side, and that is what is creating the loud thud/bang that I'm pretty sure is what I heard the first time coming into the drive. 

 

I'm not sure how I'm going to even fix the heat shield but I'm more concerned with the exhaust touching the rear suspension, that can't be good? it is 100% more noticble when the car is tilted to the right and the engine idles, you can hear the rattle quite easily because it's touching quite easily, but when you're on a straight flat road, idling , it does not make the rattle noise. Again , pretty certain its because the exhaust is no longer touching the suspension coil/ring. I noticed there is this rubber "hook" ? I guess you could call it, that is attached one end to the vehicle's frame and the other end has a loop where the exhaust has a little metal hook coming off and going into this rubber hook which appears to be stretched a bit.. could this be the issue? It doesn't seem OVERLY stretched, but this metal hook coming off the exhaust is quite badly rusted and appears to be bent from its original shape because the rubber thing is curved in the sense of a banana shape as a pose to straight down. I hope this info somewhat helps in diagnosing the possible cause here? The exchaust appears to be pretty "secure" and unlikely to fall off but I'm still super worried.

 

Any advice greatly appreciated,t hanks guys

[JamesMalin]

Heat shield is the usual suspect as it's pretty flimsy and held on by rubbish cheap clips.

Next thing is to look at the exhaust hangers making sure they're all attached correctly.

You can buy new polyurethane if need be.


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[Luke4efc]

Usually it's the heatshield. I've seen it where the bolts have vibrated out, and others that have rusted around the bolt holes.

The exhaust is supposed to have movement, it's only held onto the car using hangers. Having said that it shouldn't be rubbing against the suspension. Pictures of anything you think is wrong (such as bent hangers or stretched rubber) is the best way to go in this instance.

[jbell]

I've had play in heat shield before but as above it shouldn't be touching suspension. Pics? 

[Anderson]

Thanks guys, I thought it were odd too. I'll get some pics online tomorrow

[Anderson]

Here we go guys, in the last picture just to explain as it seems a bit random, I took this as I wanted to show that towards the more front/center of the car on the drivers side, the exhaust pipe is not "flush" with the vehicle's under carriage if that makes sense. It's not "hanging down" but it's slightly lower than the rest of the car, I wasnt sure if that is normal or not. If I wobble it, it has a little bit of play but I know exhaust pipes are meant to have a little bit of play so I guess this is normal to be down a bit more than the rest of the car? 

The biggest concern though is the other pictures, in the second picture it may seem as though I took the picture from an angle, but this is actually 100% (or clsoe to it) and infact the little metal (rusted) hook going into the rubber support is bent upwards so it's at a 30-40 degree angle which is naturally bending the support too. It doesn't seem overly stretched (the rubber support itself, just being pulled to one side by the exgaust. Whats your thoughts guys? 

 

 

[Anderson]

Okay so given that the hook thing on what I believe is called the backbox is so rusted, I suspected maybe going over a hard bump perhaps actually caused it to bend like that, and that is why it's touchign the suspension coil on the rear. I did a test today, I parked on the tilted road and listened for the noise which was quite loud inside the car but almost silent outside (weirdly enough..) , i propped something up against the exchaust tail pipe keeping it OFF of the suspension coil and got back inside, and 100% the noise is gone when I do this. soon as I removed the prop, and got in again, yep...noise was back so 100% I know what the cause is. It's the exhaust hitting the rear suspension coil and rattling against it. Now... I'm guessing there's no way to save the backbox/rear section of the exhaust given how rusted that hook part is? is this job something that less experienced individual could do? or is it something better left to the professionals?

 

any advice greatly welcomed, thanks guys

[Luke4efc]

Well you'd need a welder if you were going to try and fix the hook, only a matter of time till it completely wears through and your exhaust is dragging on the ground. A lift very very handy when changing part of the exhaust. Doable on jack stands, but not easy.

[JamesMalin]

That exhaust hangar isn't correct.

It looks as though its taken a whack or maybe in a garage the lift has caught it.

 

You were indeed right the box is hitting the suspension spring!

It'll be a case of you physically bending it back to its correct position or a garage doing so.

Obviously be careful as to not break the weld.