Metallic noise since sound gen mod

wilbo

Active member
 Berkshire
Since I have removed the foam nearest the cabin, I can hear a metallic, almost grinding, noise every time I put my foot down gently. Pretty sure the noise is coming through the sound generator. I have no idea if the noise continues when I push down harder as the noise of the engine / induction no doubt overrides it. Any ideas?
 
Hmmm i have this as well. Never put it down to this though, just ignored it lol
 
Nova2k7 said:
Hmmm i have this as well. Never put it down to this though, just ignored it lol
It coincided exactly with when I removed the foam. It almost sounds like a brake pad wear indicator noise when they grind, however only when I put my foot on the accelarator, not the brake! It's quite subtle and is easily drowned out by music, but I like to eliminate all squeaks, rattles etc if I can.
 
There's a metal coil inside the piping which forms part of the sound generation in combination with the foam. When you remove the foam the coil vibrates, causing the metallic resonance sound you're hearing.

In my previous Z4, I chopped out the metal coil which solved the issue, however for my currently z4 i re-inserted the small foam piece to mask the sound, so now its not a problem.

Andrew.
 
Does someone have a picture of the metal coil ? Or could someone take a picture for us? I'm wondering how it looks like and where it is in the sound generator... Thanks!!
 
When I previously took my sound generator apart I didn't find a metal coil just the two bits of foam? Also when you look on RealOEM it only shows the foam nothing else? Strange.
 
Bbr92 said:
When I previously took my sound generator apart I didn't find a metal coil just the two bits of foam? Also when you look on RealOEM it only shows the foam nothing else? Strange.

The metal coil is certainly there on the pre-facelift, as it took me about 20 mins to remove it all. When you pull the two parts of the sound generator apart (the tubes) and remove the foam, you can see the very end of the metal coil and also a diaphragm type arrangement. The coil itself is well hidden and not easy to see, I only found out it was in there as I tried to remove the metal part which I could see, and kept pulling until the whole of the coil was removed. There's at lease 40-50cm of wire coil in there.

Maybe the facelift is a different part, i'm not sure.

Andrew.
 
Any ideas of what the coils purpose is and if there are any issues with removing it? Is it purely to change the noise?
 
wilbo said:
Any ideas of what the coils purpose is and if there are any issues with removing it? Is it purely to change the noise?

I'm not sure what it's purpose is, however all I know is that this was the cause of the problem. If you remove the sound generator and shake the pipe, you can hear the coil vibrating/ratling.

I did over 15,000 miles without the metal coil in there and had no issues.

I'm only speak from my own experience here, but considering the sound generator is so easy and quick to remove, I'd sugguest you do a bit of investigation and see if the cause is the metal coil as I suspect.

Andrew.
 
andrewr said:
wilbo said:
Any ideas of what the coils purpose is and if there are any issues with removing it? Is it purely to change the noise?

I'm not sure what it's purpose is, however all I know is that this was the cause of the problem. If you remove the sound generator and shake the pipe, you can hear the coil vibrating/ratling.

I did over 15,000 miles without the metal coil in there and had no issues.

I'm only speak from my own experience here, but considering the sound generator is so easy and quick to remove, I'd sugguest you do a bit of investigation and see if the cause is the metal coil as I suspect.

Andrew.
Added to this weekends jobs, thanks.
 
wilbo said:
andrewr said:
wilbo said:
Any ideas of what the coils purpose is and if there are any issues with removing it? Is it purely to change the noise?

I'm not sure what it's purpose is, however all I know is that this was the cause of the problem. If you remove the sound generator and shake the pipe, you can hear the coil vibrating/ratling.

I did over 15,000 miles without the metal coil in there and had no issues.

I'm only speak from my own experience here, but considering the sound generator is so easy and quick to remove, I'd sugguest you do a bit of investigation and see if the cause is the metal coil as I suspect.

Andrew.
Added to this weekends jobs, thanks.

Hi Wilbo
Did you finally remove the coil from the sound generator? If yes, did you take a picture of the coil? So we could see how this piece looks like :-)

Thanks
 
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