My 5 is making two really annoying noises.

The first one happens at 3600 rpm and is a metallic resonating noise..Im presuming this is my manifold heat shield as I binned the cat shield 1 month ago trying to get rid of the same noise! Is there anything I can tighten to stop it resonating...Id rather not bin it, as Im thinking of buying a Piper Air filter and I presume it would heat the engine bay up more without it?

The other noise is coming from my Dual exhaust. Everytime I take a left turn and sometimes when I drive straight!! Im getting clonky zorst noises. I've already glued a piece of fuel line cut to length and attached to the rear left underside..this stopped the zorst hitting part of the underside.. and it worked for about a month...but now the noise has returned, yet the fuel line is still in place. Also, when I had an extra silencer fitted to my zorst, I noticed that the zorst is now hanging on 1 less hanger... as he chopped the middle pipe out which had a hanger on it. So I guess this isnt helping...Im going to take it back to the zorst centre and have them weld another bracket and hanger in the middle. Anyone with any other ideas I could try? (12/99)

Re the heat shield - have you taken it off temporarily to see if that is the source of the noise? It's quite likely. It's probably corroded and split. You can repair it by rivetting on pieces of stainless and redrilling mounting holes - this has worked very well on my 626. My Roadster has a non-standard manifold and exhaust complete - so no heat shield, but I've wrapped the manifold with exhaust wrap (see Demon Tweeks catalogue or racing shops) to keep the under-bonnet heat down (Yes - I know - I'm risking burning a hole in the manifold)

My (2-1/2" for whole length) exhaust has minimal body clearance, especially where the manifold passes the front 'chassis' members (2 big pipes where the standard downpipe has one small one). This caused banging of various exhaust parts on the body - I've largely cured this by using "Powerflex" (polyurethane) exhaust hangers. They're much stiffer than standard, so stop the pipe from moving so much. Come from same people as suspension bushes - someone was advertising them in STHT, also in Demon Tweeks catalogue, but it's hard to tell which hangers you need without seeing them in the flesh. I've only got two at the moment (the rest are standard) but it was all the stock in the shop at the time in the right size. Fairly expensive, but well worthwhile. Now I still get a little banging but only on high-G right handers - I used to get serious rattle every time I took my foot off the throttle, and on every bump and bend. I'll probably replace some more - there seem to be a lot of hangers on a '5's exhaust (7?) (12/99)
 
I have a bizarre thing with my MK1 that is only really noticeable when driving on dual carriageways / motorways in outside lane next to barrier. I can hear a fast ticking noise, the car has done this for at least a year but I seem to notice more that goes on these days. Anyone got any ideas what this could be ? My guess is the valves but why so loud that I can hear it when doing 60+ and only when the sound can be reflected off a barrier/wall. (1/00)
I too can hear a ticking sounds from my MX5. It's a Mk1 1.6 and about 2 years old. The noise seems to be coming from somewhere under the bonnet or deep behind the dashboard. I put it down to a noisy fuel pump as it seems to tick faster as I speed up. Above 20mph it can't be heard so I haven't let it bother me. Where is the fuel pump on the MX5? Could it be what I can hear ticking? If not, what ideas do people have? (1/00)
Fuel pump is in the fuel tank behind you, so it's not that. Is it road speed or engine speed dependent? Sounds like noisy HLA's (1/00)
Not quite the same car, but my mum had a similar problem on her old BX, turned out to be the speedo cable ratttling on part of the dashboard fitting behind the dials, a bit of foam stuff to the offending bit sorted it out. (1/00)
Its probably the fuel injectors ticking - I can hear this on mine sometimes too. (1/00)
I have the same "noise" on my 1.8S, it turned out to be a crack in the manifold. (1/00)

The other thing which most people don't actually consider is the noise level of an engine at operating power levels where everything seems magnified. Have a listen to a car at power on a dyno sometime. Normally we just hear the passing sound, much of which comes from the tyres witha sometime engine roar. However, with a a road centre barrier your ear has time to start to discern many of the component noises.

Anyway, at those sort of engine speeds for you to discern "ticking", it will not be something operating at 2000 to 4000 RPM, or 35 to 70 times a second. Even a sticky lifter operates 12 times a second at 3000 revs; that wouldn't that be defined more as a "clatter".

Unless the ticking was directly proportional to engine speed with the clutch disengaged I'd be looking at transmission speed things, starting with a stone in a tyre, or more ominously, a nail or something similar. (1/00)
Stones in tyre tread? .. happens all the time on back roads. (1/00)
... at idle ... not related to engine speed .. could be the carbon canister solenoid .. this really drives some people nuts .. look for 8" tall 4" diameter black cylinder in front of driver (RHD) under bonnet .. HLA (engine 'tappets') .. varies with engine speed directly .. should go away within 5 minutes of start up .. if not you should do something .. can be speedo but quality is better than the BX (I know ... I've still got two!) .. speed related and sometimes has quiet speeds, gets better with heat ... my daily BX has this little 'feature' .. to be fixed! .. something rubbing like cable tie hitting the alternator cooling fan... (1/00)
 
My Eunos is producing a metallic rattling sound that appears to be coming from the gearbox. It seems to happen most in 3rd and 4th gears and the sound seems to happen when my foot is lifted off the accelerator. Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong. The car has always done it but it is now really starting to annoy me. I recently had the clutch replaced and it has made no difference. (1/00)
Are you sure it's not the clamp which holds the top section of the exhaust to the gearbox? (Or in my case the end of the manifold to the gearbox - I have a non-standard header and it's much longer than the standard one) They break and/or come loose. (1/00)
I have a annoying jingle noise going most noticeable when driving over uneven or slightly bumpy roads ( ie most roads!) which appears to be coming from an area at head/shoulder height behind the passenger seat. Could be so many things- door,seat,antenna, roof,seat belt mounting etc. Most noticeable when no passenger.Sounds like a loose washer somewhere but local dealer cannot hear it. Boot been emptied. Anyone experienced this or got any ideas please. Thanks. (5/00)
Had something similar in my Mk2. Ended up removing the trim inside the boot. On the driver's side (and possibly passenger side?) there are a lot of cables channelled through from the boot through to the car interior. I tidied these up, wrapped them in foam and put some tape around it to keep it in place. You can't really see what you are doing because you must stretch in to reach. Try to separate bundles of cables into 'logical' lots before wrapping them. Also - and I think this was my problem - there is a plastic(?) bracket in there which is loosely fitted - wrap this up and try to tape it so that it can't move about. It probably took half an hour - and it solved that problem! For what it's worth I had another annoying noise coming from behind the radio - similar thing - loose cables everywhere. Just remove the radio, tidy and wrap and Bob's your uncle! (5/00)
I have been getting an annoying buzz at 3000 rpm for months now. I asked the garage to try fix it when it was in getting clutch/cambelt but they couldn't find it. I decided to do some investigation while the car was on stands (I was changing my fuel filter, messy job by the way). I took off the manifold heat shield and that didn't solve it. From there I could see down to an odd looking gasket/heat shield between the manifold and the start of the exhaust. I revved the car to 3,000 rpm and noticed that this odd shaped gasket/heatshield vibrated frantically, but not in time with the noise, so while reving it again I held the vibrating gasket and ruled that out (I ended up tearing the heat shield part of it off as it was coming loose anyway). So, with my head under the car I got someone else to rev it and I workwed my way nearer the source. Turns out it was a very small heat shield just where the exhaust starts, after the join between manifold and exhaust. There are two about three inches in length, top and bottom of the exhaust, right next to where the exhaust is bolted to the car. Anyway, the weld on one of them had broken and so my only option was to take that one off too.... Hooray - Problem solved, no more buzz. My question is, of course, is the removal of these two tiny tiny heat shields going to make any difference? They were obviously there for a reason, but with them being so small, I can only think the difference they will make will be tiny. (6/01)
I had the same noise on our 92 when we bought it new. Drove me nuts, and I could not find the source. Drove to the local dealer, and it took him about a minute to find it. (6/01)

This is a weird one, might be useful to someone oneday...

Last week I had been driving around for quite a while, it was pretty hot and sunny, roof down and all that. I then pulled up to some traffic lights and when I engaged first gear, the gear shift made a really weird and pretty loud `clump' noise. Normally - as you'll all know - it would make a nice `snick' noise but this noise was odd. Very clunky and quite loud and sounded like it came from behind the centre console. Anyway, this happened everytime I engaged first or second gear, slightly worried by this I found that gear shifts and the power still felt and sounded okay when driving. So when I got home I stripped the gear surround and I could not believe the cause. The rubber shift boot around the gear stick was ``popping'' across a fold (shift boot was new about 6 months ago). I can only guess that the warmer conditions had caused the rubber boot to become more bendy and hence easily deformed across a fold. The deforming fold made a surprisingly loud pop noise, which resonated through the centre console in the gap just under it where the wiring is routed. I ``fixed'' it by shoving in some foam around the gear shift (the original foam material has been thrown away by an immobilisier fitter - idiot). I really can't describe how weird this noise was and am surprised that it was so loud! I could hear it whilst changing from first to second at about 5000 rpm with the roof off! Surprising for a bit of rubber bending! :-) (6/01)