Mine rattles a lot. It's more apparent when the car is started after sitting for the night and is warming up.

It's common. The bolts come loose from the vibration over the years. Just take it off. Unless you park in 2-foot piles of leaves, you have nothing to worry about.

 

what tools do I need to take them off? they are rusty don't feel like paying anyone to do it..:lol:

 

Its VERY common. At subaru, we spot weld to the pipe. Id say a cutoff wheel or whizzer will make quick work of em, maybe some channel loks with teeth to pry em off.

 

Yea, happens a lot. I just used clamps. One for my first cat, one for my second. Solved the issue.

 

i would do that first.

if it still rattles or rattles in the future, just rip them off

 

rip them off. They don't really shield anything, as they get just as hot as the exhaust pipe. I had this rattle and it annoyed the fuck outta me, so I took every last one off when I re-did my exhaust.

 

The heatshields keep the cats from cooling down too much. If you tear them off, the cats are going to be cooler than they're supposed to get, thus, not working as efficiently as they're supposed to. You'll probably end up throwing a P0420 code. Clamp them first. If that doesn't work, weld. If that doesn't work, rip them off.

 

well those don't usually rattle (and I wasn't referring to them), it's the ones around the header-back that make the most sound because they're bigger and attached in less places.

 

My cat one rattles like crazy and sounds terrible when I downshift. I wish I knew someone with a welder.

 

both , the header & cat shield

 

Get an open clamp, throw it around the cat and tighten it up. They're like... $2 from the local hardware store.

As for the header, you can take those off without any issues.

 

I wrapped my shield with exhaust wrap. I didn't do the whole exhaust, just the area where the two shield parts come together. The shielding seems to loosen up over time and the parts start to rattle against each other. A little wrap over them keeps them from rattling against each other. It's worked for me, been a couple years, and the wrap hasn't unwound/fallen off. The rattle hasn't come back either. You don't need to go hog wild, just do enough to go over the offending area and so you can get metal zip-ties over the ends of the wrap so it all stays. Oh, and don't cut yourself with the zip-ties. It's like a bad paper cut, lol.