2013 manual 4 cylinder 2wd 80k - acceleration rattle

I've searched and not seen my specific scenario.

I've got 80k miles and owned it for about a year. Under acceleration in 2nd and louder in 3rd gear I'm getting a tinny rattle at 16k rpm and again at 19k rpm, not while coasting, in neutral or 1st gear ever.

I checked the heat shield and directly above the cat it was loose so I added a couple washers and it snugged up nicely; but didn't fix the rattle. The rest of the heat shield seems fairly secure and the noise didn't change at all after tightening.

I believe it's on the original clutch and don't have any service records stating any transmission work. I also didn't notice this noise for the first 10k miles since I've owned it.

Any advice would be appreciated if you've experienced anything similar.

 

I had a very similar situation with mine and the rattle was driving me insane. I found that the second cat back had a very loose/rusted heat shield so I removed it completely. The first cat was not as bad but still loose so I tightened it down with a couple stainless steel zip ties. Problem solved!
You’d be amazed how much of a racket those shields make when loose.

hope this helps…

 

Thanks for the reply! Any issues removing the heat shield completely? Seems... not ideal, haha.

So tightening with ss zip ties, could you explain how exactly? There's just one bolt in the center of the heat shield by the cat, so did you pass the zip tie between the heat shield and the vehicle body then snug it tightly around the cat deforming it from flat to round? I saw someone else mention a zip tie but with the single bolt to the body, I'm not sure how I'd snug it up to the body.

 

Yeah, I was hesitant to remove the shield also but after research here, I became comfortable with the decision to rip it off. Granted, I don’t take my truck off road (daily driver/commuter) so the risk of accidentally igniting dry brush is close to nil but as always, your habits will dictate your decision.

I took SS ties over and around the shield to cinch it tight but not enough force to cause it to deform (see attached)

These are what I used:

$17 JOUGU Metal Zip Ties 16" 304 Stainless Steel Locking Cable 250LB 400mm 100pcs Heavy Duty Exhaust Wrap Multi Purpose Binding for machinery, vehicles, farms, cables, pipes,Fence

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MQQ553J?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

Nice! Thats what I was envisioning, thank you for the picture thats very helpful. Much appreciated, I think I'm going to give that a go

 

No problem - hope it works for you!