Loud Rattle Noise

[greggbzz]

After some searching I couldn't find anything similar to this.

My exhaust seems to rattle only when there is no pressure in the pipes (i.e. I'm not on the throttle) If I even touch the pedal a little bit it mostly goes away. When I bang on the right tail pipe with the car running it reproduces the sound, kind of.

It seems to come from around the muffler. I checked the big heat shield above the muffler and it seems tight. Also the rattle gets MUCH worse when the car is hot. It's a rather obnoxious rattly, scraping sound. Anyone have something similar to this? I really suspect the exhaust system but I'm not sure.

[JIMSVX]

Usually this is caused by the center resonator. Something breaks loose inside it and as the metal gets hot it expands and it rattles much, much worse. Take it to a shop like Midas and have them cut it out and replace it with a straight pipe. It cost me $50 and stopped the noise immediately. What a relief, and the exhaust is just a little louder, but sounds nice.
- Jim