Catalytic Converter rattle Warranty?

Hi All!

 

Our 2008 Outback 2.5 Limited just developed a bad rattle from the front when warm. The heat shields seemed to be loose, so I tacked them together hoping that would fix it ... didn't work.

 

Took it by a friend's Muffler shop and he said it's the converter that needs to be welded/tacked together and it should be covered under warranty. He said he's seen this before, and a previous customer had to fight for it to be covered under warranty.

 

I called the dealer and they say that if it's the brick rattling, it's not covered and it has to fail a test to be covered. I think that's a bunch off BS since this car has never had any accidents or hits that could have damaged the brick.

 

I'll probably have to get the wife to take it in if I can't get some time off and I know she's not going to be pushy ... well, neither am I, lol

 

Has anyone else had this happen? If the dealer insists its not under warranty, who can I call? SOA? District rep? We'll probably take it in and wait around till they look at it on Thursday.

If it's a pzev model, you might want to check if it's part of the WQD-40 recall. New cat and ECU update.

SOA. the number is in the back of owners manual.

 

8 years on emissions related.

 

If's it's just a heat shield rattling it may not be covered. But you said you fixed that.

 

FWIW my wagon has not had the big center heat shield of years now. remove it.

Thanks, looking closer at it last night, it does seem like the heat shield mounts that are welded onto the CAT housing itself and not the internal. I may drop the whole assembly tonight and take the heat shields off and if possible, fix them (my welder has come in handy recently!) or leave them off. Gotta get some gaskets first.

 

This car is at the stage of its life that everything's falling apart or needs updating. Just replaced P/S front axle recently, now the D/S needs it. Tires were replaced and alignment done this last weekend ($700!) ... hopefully, I can fix it without having to fork out more $'s than I need to be spending. Even my Camaro needed a $300 spa date at the dealer, lol

A few months after subaru replaced my catalytic converter last year, I started to get a rattling noise from the new cat heat shield. One of the welds up close to the block had broken. I talked to subaru, and they said it would not be covered under warranty. They basically said they only warranty the part if it fails, and my catalytic converter was still functioning properly. Kinda stinks because I ended up paying them a small amount to weld it back together to get rid of the rattle, since I couldn't reach up there and have enough room to do anything about it myself.

 

From what I remember I think the weld circled in red is what broke for me.

Pulled out all the heat shields starting from the manifold to the second converter. No more rattles!!!! But a majority was coming from the secondary cat, so I may try to fix this issue and mount them back atleast for the manifold part of it ... good idea? I dont feel comfortable mounting the plastic under body cover back on without any heat shields.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/05/6uvu5ahy.jpg

 

Typing fat fingered on my GS3...excuse any sfelling mitcakes

Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable driving the car without any heat shields, or some sort of heat wrap.

I'd put back on what you can, and use DEI heat wrap as best you can for the rest of it.

My wife is getting an obnoxious rattle from one of her cat's and I was considering using something like these to cinch them together. I've used rivets before, but being in Buffalo, our road salt eats just about everything.

 

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Back in the day, I used to say "just rip off the violator", but heat shields are there for a reason. Has anyone tried using these stainless straps before?

Had the cat recall done, and sure enough, a couple weeks later awful rattle, mostly at startup. Clamp going on this weekend. My old Outback had every heat shield rattle at some point in its 15 years, every one fixed with a hose clamp...

 

So after looking at this more closely, it wasn't the shields after all. The O2 sensor was loose. Snugged it back down, and the rattle is gone. I don't know if it was not torqued right when the new converter went on, or what happened. I'm glad I looked.