Help with exhaust

[Aero]

I was wondering if any of you guys could offer any advice and or suggestions to a problem currently afflicting my beloved mk2 mondeo 1.8 petrol

About a week ago when I returned from holiday I noticed that the car was making a audiable metal on metal ratttling noise on low rev's that would seem to disappear over about 2k revs or so.

However the noise is not coming from the engine bay. It seems to be almost below the handbrake/drivers area.

It has been suggested to me that it may just be a baffle that has come loose and is bouncing around in the exhaust. However the car is now slightly down on power (i.e. takes a bit longer to "accelerate" ) and appears to be using more fuel.

Is this something that you would have thought a loose baffle would create? May be a block of airflow causing back pressure on the engine? = pure guess

I'd just like to get some opinions

Cheers folks

 

[Lopéz]

The cat on these collapses in on itself occasionally and eventually reduces performance by a noticeable margin. The other boxes in the system can suffer the same fate but it seems to be the cat more often than not on early Mondeos.

Check all the heatshields first to ensure none are touching the exhaust and rattling.

 

[Aero]

hmmm good to know lopez thanks, (I feared it might be the cat) I'm pretty sure the heat shielding is ok but I'll take a gander at it tomorrow.

 

[Finglonga]

Both Mondeo's I have had have done the same and both times it was the heat shield above the CAT.

 

[Randomface74]

I've had this before - it's the heat shield.