Re: Rattling Cat box

[Nick Craft <ncc@scr.siemens.com>]

<O>
<O>>           Just wanted to share a brief story with all about my rattling 
<O>> catalytic conv. box. I went into a muffler/brake shop today because I've 
<O>> had this annoying rattle coming from under the car for about 3 months 
<O>> now. Guy puts it up on the rack and immediately says 'yep. converter's gone!'
<O>>  I knew what the problem was all along and said, 'no I think it's just 
<O>> the box that encases the cat' I had been underneath there earlier and knew 
<O>> this. He insisted that it was my cat. conv. and said it'll run me about 
<O>> $500-700 for a factory replacement!!!!!!!!! I said 'Why don't we try to 
<O>> weld just the ends back to the pipe itself' as it had obviously just 
<O>> broken loose the original welds. He said ok, and I'll be damned if that 
<O>> didn't cure the whole problem!  He was so embarrased that he didn't even 
<O>> charge me! 
<O>
<O>I have the same car and a similar story. Did it two weeks ago. In my
<O>case, I know the muffler shop owner so he didn't charge me and didn't
<O>try to sell me a new cat. Seems like the welds let go at around
<O>the same time (8 years) on these cars.
<O>
<O>Zafer
<O>'87 5000 TQ

I had the same problem. Being ultra cheap I fixed it by tightening a big ol'
hose clamp round each end of the casing where the busted welds are. Worked
great.

Nick.