T350 rattle

[marT350T]

Everytime I start my car from cold I getting a metalic rattle from under the car like the exhaust is hitting something or the undertray is loose. Has anyone had this before ?

[purpleperil]

You could check the fitment of your new sports exhaust?! There are two bolt heads coming out of the heat reflecting mat that seem to come very close to the cans if they're pushed too far onto the rear pipes.

[marT350T]

The rattle was there before I fitted the new exhaust, it seems to be coming from the middle of the car.

[GOM]

Check the two cans of tyre weld. Behind right rear wheel arch under the carpet. It drove me mad until I found what it was.

[marT350T]

Checked them this is not the problem, anyone else have any ideas

[kmpowell]

marT350T said:

Checked them this is not the problem, anyone else have any ideas

No idea, but i'd be interested to know what it is if you find out!

I had a lamba(sic) sensor go on my T350T last month, and when being replaced at the dealers they took the whole exhaust off, cleaned the cats from any soot and then re-fitted the exhaust.

Since then, when on idle, I get an ever so slight 'tinny' rattle similar to that you are describing, which seems to also emmit directly from under the trasnmission tunnel. Last weekend i took her to a few different garages that have MOT ramps (the T350 is too low to go on a standard ramp!) and asked them to check the exhaust etc for anything that was loose. 3 different garages have inspected the car and can find nothing loose, so I presume it must be something internal.

I have a suspiscion it may be the cats, but becasue it doesn't seem to be getting worse i'm going to give it until next week to see if it clears up before contacting teh dealers, due to the fact that if there was something wrong it should have been picked up when they fitted the exhaust, and also that the exhaust needs to have a good run to get rid of the soot that had built up from teh lamba sensor going (which it got at CC on saturday)

[yi8tvr]

marT350T said:

Checked them this is not the problem, anyone else have any ideas

A ramp

[targarama]

Kev - certainly sounds like a cat to me. Esp. since it start after someone had been prodded at them.

[marT350T]

Just got in from trying to find out were this rattle is coming from. I think I have found it, the only thing is I cant do anything about is as I cant get under the car and it does go onto my local garages ramp beacause of ground clearance.

Anyway the rattle is the exhaust on the under tray. The tray is secure so its the movement of the exhaust which is causing the rattle. I am now thinking of adding a few washers to the bolts so it lowers the tray down slightly which will hopefully give a bit more clearance and get rid of the noise.
Anybody got any better ideas?

[tail slide]

marT350T said:

I am now thinking of adding a few washers to the bolts so it lowers the tray down slightly which will hopefully give a bit more clearance and get rid of the noise. Anybody got any better ideas?

Spot on, this will do the trick & only takes 5 mins. Had same problem, easily solved by 1 or 2 big washers from Halfords under each of the two front bolts & it's the way that dealers solve it too

No two exhausts fit exactly the same, so some are a few mm too close.

[doctor_darren]

I too have the same rattle with my T350 when cold and exhaust is standard. Not too irritating (it reduces as the car warms up) so I haven't done anything about it, but my hunch was that it was the cats rattling. Might have a look to see if it's the undertray in my case as that seems like a relatively easy fix.

Cheers,

Darren

[phoenix-pete]

Hi.

I had this on my T350, the exhaust bolts touching the tray.
But the cause of the bolt touching the tray should be your concern as I bet the nearside engine mount will be buggered which drops the engine down a bit. You can tell by looking at the exhaust manifolds from the engine bay, They will be very close to the bodywork!!
The N/S engine mount is very close to the manifolds and gets cooked.
TVR Barnet replaced mine with what they said was an improved one.
Oh and my T350 had 6000 miles on it at the time. 53 plate.

Bet thats it!!!

Pete.

[marT350T]

Thanks for that I will check that out today. My car has only 3500 miles so it hasnt lasted long if it is that!

[phoenix-pete]

Hi Mark.

Has it allways done it?
A rattle type noise I asked the dealer about on my T350 was weird, it happened everytime you started the engine just for 2 seconds or so and to me sounded like the tappety sound you get on a car with hydraulic tappets when cold if you know what I mean. They said it is a common problem and it is the starter motor pre-engage bit not returning quick enough and causing the noise. Never did bother getting it sorted as was not a big deal.
They said a new starter would cure it but I did not see it as a problem.
Cheers
Pete.

[tail slide]

phoenix-pete said:

The N/S engine mount is very close to the manifolds and gets cooked. TVR Barnet replaced mine with what they said was an improved one. Oh and my T350 had 6000 miles on it at the time. 53 plate.

Interesting info - will check mine.