Date:         Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:00:16 -0500
Reply-To:     John Graham <theklube@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Graham <theklube@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Rattle in catalytic converter? 88 Vanagon
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Last year, my westy got rear ended - yup.  I was lucky, I wasn't hit hard,
just cracked the bumper and bent up some sheet metal; it was driveable.  The
impact got as far in as denting the outer cover on the muffler.

After it was repaired, I noticed that I have a rattle in the back end for a
while after starting from cold that sounds like sheetmetal or tin.  It goes
away after a while, so I haven't bothered to fix.  Well yesterday, I had
some time and the weather was nice so I cranked it up and snooped around the
back end to find the rattle...  The only thing that I found was that when
lying on the ground under the muffler area, if I pressed up on the bottom of
the catalytic convert can with a heavy screwdriver the rattle went away.  My
pressure was not deforming the shape of the canister, but it was reducing
the jitter of the exhaust system just enough to stop the rattle.

I couldn't see any other loose connections, so I'm wondering if catalytic
converters, when they take a whack can develop a rattle until they get
warmed up??  Is this possibly my rattle?

It doesn't look too difficult to replace - cut the bolts.  Do new ones come
with the gaskets?

John Graham
88 Westy - Charlotte, NC