And the mystery rattle is....

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2919]

Driving the race car to and from Hampton at the week-end (more of that in another thread) I noticed a new rattle coming from either behind the dash or worst case, the engine. The rattle is gradually getting worse, louder and happening more. I know trying to diagnose an E30 rattle is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack but I have a couple of ideas.

The noise doesn't happen all the time, only under part throttle and happens around 3 - 3.5k rpm, and it is a fairly high pitched "ticking" type rattle, definately NOT a deep knocking. Under no load or full throttle there is no noise, even at those rpm.

My thoughts are, that it might be a bracket or something getting loose in the dash which is vibrating at a certain frequency, hence the rpm being a factor, OR it might be a little end bearing on the way out, the load on the piston determining whether there is a rattle or not.

Any easy way to find out which it is, don't really want to start pulling the engine apart or swapping short engines at this stage if I don't have to?

[BM WORLD 1264]

exhaust bracket rattle or muffler rattling inside??

[greenday-rulz21 4]

Jon, that almost sounds exactly the type of rattle I had on my E36. Only came around the 2-3rpm range, high pitched tinny rattle. Turned out to be the exhaust hangar bracket. The one off the bottom of the gearbox (From memory). Would suggest you check out all the exhaust brackets and then progress from there.

Cheers

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2919]

Cheers, I didn't even think of that as an option - I will check it out and fingers crossed you are right!