Hi all,

Just curious about this.

Noticed that the old girl is making a strange sort of low resonant noise from the front of the car (slightly forward from underneath the middle of the driver and passenger seat sort of area) when Im coming back down the rev range and it hits 3,250. Its only at this specific point and it only happens when the car is moving and not stationary.

Any pot shot guesses what it might be for a newbie such as myself (first car lol)?

Cheers,
John

could be something in the exhaust join rattling at a certain (resonant?) frequency of vibrations....

Could also be a loose heat-shield (small sheet of metal attached -not very well- to the exhaust pipe that does not actually do much anyway).

I think that everyone has suffered this at some point and most 'Fs after a certain age will have lost ALL the heat-shields anyway! :P

Lol, I must admit, it doesnt sound TOO bad at the minute, but if its either of the above will it get worse?

How much to fix you reckon?

the heat sheild thing is easy to fix. jst go to halfords get the correct size exhaust clamp and put it on

[url]http://www.maz323f.co.uk/tuning/exhausts/heatsheild/heatsheild.php[/url] take a look at this article in the guides section for more information on the heat sheild.

Arty

[quote="Wai.Cheung"]
I think that everyone has suffered this at some point and most 'Fs after a certain age will have lost ALL the heat-shields anyway! :P[/quote]

I've had a look at mine while under the car (a '94 M plate) before, and they seem to be fixed on pretty securely. I think they were bolted the underside of the floor pan. I've certainly had no problems with them, so I was thinking that perhaps it only affect the face-lifted F's?


[size=150][b][color=red]Mark[/color][/b][/size]

Mark, thats exactly the same year and reg as mine, I'll take a look at that when Im doing the cam belt change and oil filter next week - might as well get my hands dirty all in one day lol!

Whats the difference between the 94 and 95 models by the way, ringing round garages for parts seems to give me the impression that a lot changed on the car in that year?

Mine resonates at this point as well, It is not the same as the heatshield rattle. I am not worried about it. it must the yhe frequency of the exhaust system.

Yeah, had a squeeze and it looks like all the heat-shields are corroding, so waiting for it to go - why do i suspect there'll be some 'hidden' costs in repairing them though lol

Are the heat shields cruicial? Can you not go without them?

Everyone else with this problem has just removed them as far as I know.

[color=red][b]Mark[/b][/color]

Mark, I'm a little concerned about the proximity of the exhaust to the floor of the car - I cant decide what to do with this now as it's getting a little noisy to be honest.

If I take the heatshield off it looks like I might have to remove some of the exhaust clamps, and I'm a little concerned about the general health of the middle section of my exhaust and whether or not it would actually make it through the operation lol

Anybody any ideas?

New Stainless exhaust!! :P

Hi, long time lurker and a first time poster and thought I'd wet my feet with this one.

I've got a similar problem at the moment, where at 2.5k revs it sounds like the exhaust will shake itself apart. No problem I thought lets just go and beat that heatshield into submission. Unfortunately after getting the car up on a ramp and having a butchers I discover that whatever muppet had my 323f before me had managed to shear off 2 of the studs on the exhaust manifold. This inturn caused the entire pipe to shake itself when it hit a certain rev level.

At the moment the car is in a very friendly garage having said studs removed and new ones put in. Just to make matters that little bit worse however is that I've just been told that the pillock at prospeed in cardiff that put the long life exhaust on (before I bought the car) had ground down the connecting plate on the front section so thin that it is likely to fall apart soon, meaning new front section needed too.

Anyone know how much I should be looking at for the cost of a new front section of exhaust for a 1.5 323f '96?