Hi All.
I sold my 98 TF to a mate a month ago as a rough diamond for $1000. Was running perfect.
200,000 ks on it.
Now it has developed a horrible metallic rattling noise, seems to be coming from the front of the engine.. Hard to be sure where it's coming from, but with my face under the radiator, I think it's coming from the exhaust or sump area (is that possible?) the noise seems to go when I rev the engine.definitely worse at idle. I've checked the fans and belts, nothing caught up in there. AC compressor spins freely...
I really want to fix it as he is a student with not much $....I feel lousy about selling him a dodgy car..:tired:
Any ideas folks?

Could be the Y-pipe section of the exhaust after the manifolds. Known to be rattly when they get a bit of age and kilometres under them.

You pretty much asked the same question (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96754) about three and a half years ago lol

3 years ago it was noisy heat shields. Yes but this time the rattling is really baad. sounds like tin can full of marbles.

Could something be flying around in the sump?

Check out some youtube videos of rod knock. Is that the sound?

Thanks Spetz,
Just watched a few vids- No it's nothing like that sound

I'll go around there tomorrow and try running it with the accessory belt off to eliminate a few things. Then I'll take the exhaust apart.
If no luck then I'll make a video of it and maybe you guys might be able to make more sense of it.

I didn't have the courage to take the belts off today. What I did do is take the cat converter off and have a look, clean as a whistle. I tried peering up the pipe with a torch but couldn't see anything. the splitter seems to be just out of sight on a curve. I might just cut the pipe tomorrow to get a definite yes or no. One thing I did notice , I took one of the cambelt covers off to have a look, the belt seems quite loose, quite a lot of play in it..Is that normal?

I think after the car has been turned off it may become loose (wait until someone confirms as I may be wrong).

Mind you that if it does not tighten up then the rattling sound may be the belt flapping around.

This is the rattling sound my car made when the belt was loose because the tensioner was not properly installed. The rattle was much louder in person than the video depicts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ2QJrcG2tg&feature=youtu.be

Thanks Spetz,

Mystery solved.
It turned out to be the starter motor not disengaging properly with the flywheel. I found it instantly when I got under the car with a stethoscope.
When I cleaned out the starter, it had some loose bits of plastic inside that must have been blocking it's movement.. anyway It still works fine so I won't bother replacing it.
So glad because this job only cost me a can of degreaser.

Nice outcome