98 E320 Avantgarde Exhaust Rattle

[Grabs]

Hi All,

Around three weeks ago i managed to scrape my exhaust on one of those lovely speed humps and a nice bracket fell off (its the shape of an 8 cut in half from top to bottom), and now low and behold my exhaust rattles like hell at low revs, the car was due for the MOT at this time and went through with only a couple of tyres needing replacing now i have just been searching on here and seen lots of threads about broken cats etc and the vast amounts these cost to replace but the car did pass the emissions test?.

Now i havent had time to time to get underneath the car and check where the rattle is coming from but it sounds metallic and only occurs at low revs, could this be damaged cats? or an issue with the bracket that fell off, i have managed to reach under the car and the exhaust feels solid with hardly any movement just the damn annoying rattle.

So two questions if it is the cat whats the cheapest option as the car is now up for sale with me having purchased a vito (another story)

second question i have heard tales of decat pipes etc and the debate of whether they are legal or not what year did it become necassary to have one of these fitted mine being ten years old and all so would a decat pipe be the cheapest option?

I know i should pull my finger out and get the car up on ramps and investigate but i simply havent had the time and wont have a spare weekend for nearly three weeks so any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated to aid me when i finally get a chance to investigate the problem properly.

Many Thanks for reading

 

[jaymanek]

you may have just unsettled an exhuast shield?

 

[Grabs]

Hi,

Hopefully it will be something as simple as that, dont want to put buyers off with the rattle but unfortunately just havent had the time to investigate, as the car passed the emmissions test with the rattle could this point to something simple, have read conflicting stories on here about the model having two cats and the front ones being for the american test which is more stringent?
The more i read into it the more confused i get will just have to find some time and crawl under and investigate, would be handy if someone could identify the bracket that came off like i said its the shape of an 8 cut in half from top to bottom with a bolt in the middle and looks like it would clamp both pipes simultaenously anyone have any ideas where its from?

Thanks

 

[lynall]

Item 89 92 as you have one half of the bracket in your hand the other half is still probably on the car and thats whats rattling
Looks like one half bolts to the other so assuming you can get the snapped or rusty bolts out it should be a simple job, if not wont be very dear from the dealer.

 

[Grabs]

Hi nice diagram, yep it looks like you could be spot on hopefully its just the top of the bracket rattling along on the pipes, is this available as a part or is it breakers yard job ?
Many thanks for all your help by the way top man !

 

[lynall]

See this site very useful ??????? ????????? MB. ????? ??????. everyone calls it the russian site.

Just ring up your dealer for the bit i think they keep stocks for cars up to 30 years old or something silly like that.



Lynall