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I have a Rover 416 Sli auto, and over the last couple of months Ive been getting a really bad rattling noise from underneath the car whilst driving. Infact the noise is kind of tin cans/metal being dragged along the road...difficult to describe properly. It appears once the car has warmed up after a mile or so, and only happens when pulling away at reasonable speed from a junction or lights etc. It also is present when driving between 50/60 mph, but weirdly dissapears over this speed, and is not audible when driving along at steady 30/40 mph...and also not audible when stood still ticking over, or even revving the engine whilst stood still. Its coming from outside the car, and sounds like its directly underneath the gear selector area, and is almost definately not an internal rattle, ie its not from inside the engine or inside the gearbox. The car drives exactly the same as before, with no effect on performance or handling or anything. Any help would be much appreciated if anyone has any ideas what it could be. Thanks in advance, Graeme.
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Check your exhaust, it could be a collapsed silencer or failed cat/poss even heat shield on cat come loose.400 series had a very thin heat shield that vibrated at certain revs,giving that sound
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Steve
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Is a loose heatshield something I can check easily by putting car up on a jack? And if it is the cat itself thats failed how much would this cost approx to replace? I didnt realise it would make this kind of noise if it had gone..I assumed it would blow like other parts of the exhaust...Only a novice at all of this though so bear with me.
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you can check if heat shield is causing it,jack up safely and put stand under car as manual says.start engine and wait untill it happens,shield is screwed on or used to be-when the noise occurs use a screwdriver and press middle of shield if the noise stops its the shield-if not somewhere else in exhaust probably...Cats are roughly £150 depending where you go
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Steve
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It is almost certainly the exhaust heat shield. I've run a Rover 416 like yours and now a 5 door Civic off the same production line. They've both done it.
Just as the downpipe / middle section of the exhaust turns through about 90deg to run towards to rear of the car, there is a 2-piece heat shield above and below the exhaust. (can't remember off-hand what it's shielding...)
Anyway, the shield is poorly designed and relies on 2 spot welds at each side to stay in one piece. To the best place to have spot welds, so close the vibration of the engine and subject to extreme heating and cooling.
My local exhaust fitter helpfully hacksawed off the bottom bit which was rattling, warning me to be careful of parking in long grass.
I'm 90% confident that you need to do the same.
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