Rattling, Undercarriage

[Hoppe]

Recently, there seems to be some rattling under my car, whenever I switch off the engine. It doesn't happen all the time (in fact, I am beginning to feel that it's time related).

What could be causing the rattling sound?

BTW, car is old Swift 1.0.

 

Any expert advice before I bring it to the mechanic?

(Not free until Sat!)

[Ace_t]

you might want to shake the exhaust at the end (when u switch off your engine) to see if it's a loose mounting point, or some stones in your exhaust.

 

is your model with a CAT converter ?.. maybe the CAT's gone already, but you'd feel some symptoms.

[Hoppe]

yup, it's a CAT.

You mentioned symptoms. Care to give me some info on that?

[Ace_t]

symptoms might include the following:

 

1) Noticeable loss of power

2) Engine emissions light is ON or lit up

3) Heavy smell of petrol at the exhaust end. Reduced fuel consumption; all things being equal.

4) Failed emissions test (u can get a mech to check this.. or go for inspection)

 

maybe the others will add more. This is just what I know.

 

[reply]

 

yup, it's a CAT

[Darkness]

sometimes it might be a simple case of ur exhaust hiting the exhuast heat shield...just ask the mech to jack up the car and check...if got scratch marks on the exhaust then confirm that it is....else the ceramic coating inside the cat convertor is breaking liao

[Hoppe]

took the car for a late checkup at 7pm yesterday.

Luckily the CAT still ok

Exhaust is loose somewhere, got the mechanic to repair at low cost.

In the meantime, also changed spark plugs, air filter, old filter, oil, etc.

 

Now the car is working like a charm again.

 

The only thing is that this car is like an aeroplane...really noisy.

But with a 1.0litre engine and old, it's expected anyways...

 

Any ideas to reduce the noise?

Thx in advance.

[Ace_t]

good to hear that u fixed your problem.

 

old engine, no choice.. have to live with the noise.

Unless you re-insulate your bonnet and firewall with sound proof material.

 

or also replace engine.. they have a 1.3 l available.

[Hoppe]

-> 1.3L legal meh?

BTW, never did any high speed alignment on my tyres for some time now. Will that be a cause of noise too?

[Ace_t]

well, legal or not would depend on how you want to go about making it legal.

 

the noise you mentioned are related to road noise.. something inherrent to all cars.

 

it starts from the tyres to rims, to shock absorbers to springs to the chassis to the interior etc etc...

 

so it really depends on which area you want to target.

IMHO for old cars, just live with the noise, as the chassis itself is not filled with much material.

 

Perhaps you might want to replace your tyres (if worn out)

else you could do a high speed re-balancing and maybe a wheel alignment for all 4 wheels.

 

my friend had a 1.0 suzy which was scrapped early this year... I think I can understand what you mean by noisy...