Tapping sound in OD solved
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 23,283
Likes: 906
From: Lake Elsinore, CA
Tapping sound in OD solved
A couple of weeks ago I and another member reported a tapping sound that only occurred in our MN6's in overdrive gears (5th & 6th). That is the first time I had heard of this problem on this forum or any other. Subsequently, another member emailed me about the same problem after reading my post. His car was totally stock and mine isn't so it seemed independent of the mods I've done (FLP's, MagnaFlow's, Blackwing, Air bridge, etc.). Below is a link to the thread I posted.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=279473
This morning I was under the car tidying up the clamps on my FLP's and decided to see if I could locate where the tapping noise was coming from. As I shook the exhaust pipes, I noticed a sound very similar to the tapping sound and discovered that the springs attached to the x-pipe (h-pipe for you stockers) had almost no tension on them and rattled when I shook the exhaust. One of them was tapping against the torque-tube cast housing, thus creating the "metal against the cast housing" sound I had described earlier. I used a wire tie to compress the spring, creating tension on the spring against its attachment points and moving it away from the housing. The other spring was fine so I left it alone. Afterward, I took it for a test drive and, viola', no more tapping. :cheers: :yesnod:
For those of you MN6er's experiencing this, don't let the dealer pull your drive train out looking for the problem before you check this! :nono: I think this occurs in OD gears because 1) there is no torque load on the exhaust during steady-state cruising, allowing the springs to dangle freely if they are not in tension, 2) there is less noise in the cabin while in OD which makes it possible to hear this sound and 3) the wind under the car blows the loose spring around causing it to tap randomly against the housing.
Remember, this was happening on my car before I changed my exhaust so it wasn't a function of different geometry due to new components.
Here's a picture of where the springs are located. The left of the picture is the front of the car.
Hope this helps someone with a very annoying problem. :seeya
[Modified by Patches, 4:59 PM 5/12/2002]
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=279473
This morning I was under the car tidying up the clamps on my FLP's and decided to see if I could locate where the tapping noise was coming from. As I shook the exhaust pipes, I noticed a sound very similar to the tapping sound and discovered that the springs attached to the x-pipe (h-pipe for you stockers) had almost no tension on them and rattled when I shook the exhaust. One of them was tapping against the torque-tube cast housing, thus creating the "metal against the cast housing" sound I had described earlier. I used a wire tie to compress the spring, creating tension on the spring against its attachment points and moving it away from the housing. The other spring was fine so I left it alone. Afterward, I took it for a test drive and, viola', no more tapping. :cheers: :yesnod:
For those of you MN6er's experiencing this, don't let the dealer pull your drive train out looking for the problem before you check this! :nono: I think this occurs in OD gears because 1) there is no torque load on the exhaust during steady-state cruising, allowing the springs to dangle freely if they are not in tension, 2) there is less noise in the cabin while in OD which makes it possible to hear this sound and 3) the wind under the car blows the loose spring around causing it to tap randomly against the housing.
Remember, this was happening on my car before I changed my exhaust so it wasn't a function of different geometry due to new components.
Here's a picture of where the springs are located. The left of the picture is the front of the car.
Hope this helps someone with a very annoying problem. :seeya
[Modified by Patches, 4:59 PM 5/12/2002]
Team Owner
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 26,714
Likes: 344
From: Houston, TX
Re: Tapping sound in OD solved (Patches)
Thanks for posting. I have occasionally had a noise under the car that could be the same thing. I'll have to check it out next time I have it up on jack stands. :cheers:
