baffling

[arcbeer]

I've got a standard exhaust and ever since I've owned the car I've been having problems with the exhaust one way or another.

I had a nearly new (apparently done 1000 miles) back-box put on a couple of weeks ago. After 100 miles driving it's sounding terrible. It sounds like some of the baffling has become loose producing a noise similar to something metallic in a washing machine.

No matter how poor the materials in the exhaust I can't believe it has gone again already. Any suggestions as to the cause?

Does anyone else on here have a de-catted Cerb with standard exhaust and if so how has yours faired?

[pistol]

I've just had mine 97 4.2 dacatted and it sounds fantastic, I've read on a thread someone else having the same problem as you they referred to it as 'someone hitting a metal bucket with a hammer' which doesn't sound too pleasant.

[crazycats]

I would think, that taking the cats out subjects the standard back box to a lot more resonance, with its not originally designed for.

You only have to lift your foot of the gas, to hear what it's going through....

[arcbeer]

pistol said:

I've just had mine 97 4.2 dacatted and it sounds fantastic, I've read on a thread someone else having the same problem as you they referred to it as 'someone hitting a metal bucket with a hammer' which doesn't sound too pleasant.

That was me Well, let me know how you get on.

Crazycats, I agree but I remember reading on here in the year or so before I bought my car that the best sound was de-cat with standard exhaust. Plenty of people seemed to have had it done but no one mentioned their exhausts falling apart. Maybe they were just keeping shtum

[arcbeer]

joospeed said:

sports exhaust may not be your answer anyway .. have you thought about the decat / std back box route. It sounds even better than sports pipes IMO!! .. benefits are that you get to keep your cats in good condition, but there's a benefit on the noise front too: the tvr silencer is an absorption type ie it runs a perforated straight through pipe surrounded by sound deadening material in the silencer, these are very good at silencing at low revs / part throttle, but very bad at silencing at high revs / large throttle .. this means that if you want to you can drive gently and have a car that's close to std sound levels ie for a long cruise or in a built up area at night, but out on the open road you can let rip with the throttle and the silencer becomes much noisier .. sounds like both you and your dad would get what you want from this. Plus it works out only one third the price of getting sports rear pipes fitted .. bargain!!

Joolz, I've dredged this one up from the archive. Do you find the standard exhausts don't last very long with de-catted pipes?

[B16 VRM]

Sounds familiar. Decatt on standard box about a year ago, sounded great. Just had car into Joolz for service and nitrons and was told back box was shot (internal pipe bouncing around inside). Options were 1. open can for a bit of welding but wouldn't last.
2. new TVR back box £350 but will only last as long as the last (approx 30K miles)
3. Sports Pipes £350 life time guarantee straight off Joolz's office wall.
Went for sports pipes and IMHO think they sound the best option although I had ringing in my ears after 90 miles return trip home to North Yorkshire( or was that from the wife giving me earache about the £2k bill)

[joospeed]

The std back box sounds the best, they're known to break though .. typically 25-30k miles which is about 6 years motoring for most owners so not a big issue unless you plan to keep teh car for a long time like b19vrm.

the life of the box isn't unduly affected by going decatted .. it might shorten it slightly with the louder noise / vibration but yuo're talking only a matter of months less rather than say only lasting a year with decats.

[arcbeer]

Thanks for the replies. Turned out to be a rattling heat shield. Easily fixed.

I'm happy now that the box should last me for a fair while now. The last one gave up the ghost at 36K so from your replies this seems par for the course.