K so i removed the O2 sensor and here are some photos of the interior:



front





back





front and back parts with the gap



I didn't see any loose parts on the inside so i'm guessing the heat shield is the rattle?? To me it looks like its in good shape... am i wrong? Do I need to connect everything back up and then measure the tempature just to make sure it's working?

 

If it is bad I was thinking of just hollowing it out until I buy a mid-pipe... opinions? I've always wanted to go cat less and upgrade the exhaust just haven't made it a priority...

 

The only other thing it could be is the liner that goes around the strata.



If you secure the heat shield and it still sounds like something's loose, or better yet, you see the whole section move, then it's probably a matter of time before it does start breaking up.
You'd like to be sure it's bad, cause they go for about $1400.

 

okay so this is my plan. Since it could be deteriorating on the inside and i just wouldn't know visually I will put everything back together and once i get my new ignition parts in a will do the heat test method because it seems like this is the only way of knowing it the CAT is actually performing as it is supposed to.

 

Last week I coded my 2005 and got a po302 code, misfire on rotor 2. Researched several places such as local auto zone, advanced auto. Online sites like rock auto and others for prices. Found the best price on eBay. Made sure all oem part numbers matched. Locally would have been over 350$ but thru research I spent 120$ for all: four iridium plugs, ngk wire(colored coded), and four coils. Did all my self. Trick is the air box and left front wheel. Label each hose disconnected to the connection, there are 4-5 vaccine lines to do, plugs are specific: trailing and leading. Black wires go top black wires to bottom. Plug housing is also marked T and L

 

Yeah I ordered all my stuff from Mazmart a couple weeks back, apparently the coils were on back order from Japan because they are the latest revision so that's why they haven't arrived yet. I've already done a lot of work under the hood so i'm not too concerned about swapping everything out. It's rather straight forward.

 

UPDATE: Got all the parts in, did the install which was straight forward. Upon removing my old spark plugs i noticed they have a lot of rust/corrosion build up on them!! I'll post pics if you want. Anyways drove it today and after a 20 minute drive that was pretty hard driving, red lining a couple times. Noticed a much smoother acceleration along with more power. Measured my CAT temps after the drive. At engine idle the INLET of the CAT was reading in the 370 degrees Fahrenheit while the output was reading in the 520's degrees. Is this normal? It seemed like it was operating just fine to me.