New cat converter? or just heatshield?

[Losiracer2]

I'm curious, I havn't delved into it that much, but last night, my car started making this rattling noise from 10-30mph, at around 2400 RPMs. It sounds like metal on metal, like there's a bunch of loose nuts stuck inside a pipe.

But is there a distinct difference when a cat. is functioning normally as opposed to it being bad? since our O2 sensors are before, its kinda hard to tell if its bad or not.

Does it make a distinct sound or you think its just my heatshield rubbing on the undercarriage? When I did my H22 swap the downpipe for the header was a bit short so we had to kinda put some tension on the rest of the exhaust and then bolt it up. I'm just wondering if it could be that rattling or not.

But this is the OEM cat w/ about 180K miles on it, so I don't want to doubt it being a bad. Cat. I'm at school right now otherwise I'd be all up underneath my car lol. I just can't stand these annoying sounds ya know!

[N9netwoAccord]

most likely its the heatshield, but usually if the cats bad it'll be more noticeable, sometimes if you hit you'll hear a rattle inside, or you'll have a HUGE loss of power, because of a restricted exhaust.

[owequitit]

I'm curious, I havn't delved into it that much, but last night, my car started making this rattling noise from 10-30mph, at around 2400 RPMs. It sounds like metal on metal, like there's a bunch of loose nuts stuck inside a pipe.

But is there a distinct difference when a cat. is functioning normally as opposed to it being bad? since our O2 sensors are before, its kinda hard to tell if its bad or not.

Does it make a distinct sound or you think its just my heatshield rubbing on the undercarriage? When I did my H22 swap the downpipe for the header was a bit short so we had to kinda put some tension on the rest of the exhaust and then bolt it up. I'm just wondering if it could be that rattling or not.

But this is the OEM cat w/ about 180K miles on it, so I don't want to doubt it being a bad. Cat. I'm at school right now otherwise I'd be all up underneath my car lol. I just can't stand these annoying sounds ya know!

Remove the heatshield. If it stops, that was it. If not, well then onto something else.

[GangstaCB7]

If the cat was bad it would affect it at any speed, so I think its just the heatshield

[Losiracer2]

ahhh crap, my bad, I was just being too paranoid. It was missing the two front 10mm bolts that hold the two pieces of the heatshield together. Now not a squibble of sound coming from down there. Thanks for the help though!