Hi everyone!
I've decided to take action against this problem now despite the car being in storage, but it'd help to know what exactly I can do about it on my own. For background, I'm a college kid with minimal experience in working with exhausts, and this is my first Z and BMW.
To start, my '03 3.0i has an unusual exhaust system - I still haven't fully figured it out but it's a dual exhaust fitted with the M bumper and facelift taillights. Don't get me wrong it sounds great and looks stylish despite the bumper kinda hanging off in the middle firmly, but any time the car is in D or R this high pitched rattle and clanking noise winds up and sounds absolutely horrible. I have to put the car in N at stoplights because it's all I can hear and that stops it. Backing in is the worst, especially in a garage as all it does is echo it.
I snapped a few pictures into the pipe and on both sides there's a (rusted?) metal ring just hanging out on the floor of my muffler. The sound is much more prominent on the left pipe, and I've concluded that my exhaust fumes are rattling those loose rings around, thus generating this whiney rattle. Looks to me like a heat guard, but I can't really figure out if it belonged to the cat, muffler, or even the tip. Obviously this is a custom setup (from the previous owner) and I can't find any resources online on a heat shield loose in the pipe rather than outside.
Anybody have any relevant information, or resources? I can't find any serial numbers on the pipes or anything like that.
I've decided to take action against this problem now despite the car being in storage, but it'd help to know what exactly I can do about it on my own. For background, I'm a college kid with minimal experience in working with exhausts, and this is my first Z and BMW.
To start, my '03 3.0i has an unusual exhaust system - I still haven't fully figured it out but it's a dual exhaust fitted with the M bumper and facelift taillights. Don't get me wrong it sounds great and looks stylish despite the bumper kinda hanging off in the middle firmly, but any time the car is in D or R this high pitched rattle and clanking noise winds up and sounds absolutely horrible. I have to put the car in N at stoplights because it's all I can hear and that stops it. Backing in is the worst, especially in a garage as all it does is echo it.
I snapped a few pictures into the pipe and on both sides there's a (rusted?) metal ring just hanging out on the floor of my muffler. The sound is much more prominent on the left pipe, and I've concluded that my exhaust fumes are rattling those loose rings around, thus generating this whiney rattle. Looks to me like a heat guard, but I can't really figure out if it belonged to the cat, muffler, or even the tip. Obviously this is a custom setup (from the previous owner) and I can't find any resources online on a heat shield loose in the pipe rather than outside.
Anybody have any relevant information, or resources? I can't find any serial numbers on the pipes or anything like that.