My friend's 96 accord LX, auto, 4 cyl., F22B2 makes an annoying low pitched rattling noise when you first accelerate. When I put it in Park and rev the engine it does not make the noise. But when I put it in drive and hit the gas it makes a noise like brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and then pans out to a metallic noise that would make you think it is the heat shield. But the bottom heat shield has already been removed and it continues to have what I would call "heat shield rattle". I also had someone get in the car and drive off acouple of times in front of me and I would pick up the noise best right behind the front wheels as the car pulled away. If anyone has any ideas they would be most helpful.

Thank you,

Hondalover

 

Still, when you accelerate the engine shifts position & that moves the exhaust around. Could be a heatshield attached to the floorpan, above the pipe?

Earlier Accords had an A-pipe that was a pipe-inside-a-pipe. The inner one would rattle against the outer one. Not sure what year that arrangement dissappeared. I had that problem on an Integra and it sounded exactly like a rattling heatshield.

 

When I replaced my Exhaust (94 Accord EX) a couple of weeks ago, I was dealing with the same thing. Heat Shield Rattle from right by the Cat. I had to do a Rigged Weld job to get it from rattling. After the exhaust was complete, the rattle appeared to have gone away after the weld. Well, three weeks into it, the exhaust works perfectly fine, but the rattle has reared its ugly head again. It is annoying, but not annoying enough for me to get back under there and weld again. I just turn the radio up a little bit, or tap the gas.

Good luck. I'm just going to deal with it, and enjoy the quiet exhaust, and deal with a little metal ping. I tried though.

 

I looked at and tried to move the upper heat shield around to see if there was any excessive movement but it seemed to be pretty tight. Next I replaced the front motor mount and the noise is not as bad as before. So when I get a chance I'm going to replace the rear motor mount to see if that eliminates the noise altogether.