auto tranny question

My car started making a scratchy, rattling sound whenever it hits high rpm and is about to shift into the next gear. I drive a 96 automatic civic dx. I took it to the guy i normally take my car to, and he didnt really say much about the noise. I bought the car 100k miles old so i didnt figure itd ever been serviced, but apparently my car has a sealed filter and cant be serviced. The guy i took it to for the tranny servicing said he could change my fluid but it looked fine to him. I had asked him to check out the rattling and he said it was my catalytic converter and i needed to have it worked on. Called back my regular mechanic and he said he doubted that was the problem because he had just done a tune up on my car and said that it would have had more symptoms had my converter been messed up. I'm takin the car in to him again tomorrow and hes lookin at it for me free of charge. I dont know of any mechanics in this area that work on foreign cars specifically which would probably help my situation i guess. So thats my story... if any of you have heard of anything remotely close to that i hope youll post and help me figure out whats goin on with my car. I'm quite frustrated about it atm :confused:

Its probably a loose catalytic converter heat shield - couple choices - repace / clamp / rip off. Personally I would clamp it. If the cat. is internally bad, it will also rattle. Its hard to pin-point without actually hearing it.

Honda's are the easiest foreign cars to work on IMO

what should i try clamping it down with? and also.. what are the negative effects to ripping out my cat converter (other than being illegal) . thanks :)

First off make sure thats the problem. When the car is cool tap on the exhuast with something, ford wrench works. You may here a rattle coming from another place on the exhaust pipe, theres a bunch of shields that can rattle. You would use a large hose clamp to tighten it down. The only important shields IMO are cat. shields & upper/under body shields - mosty fuel tank shield.

atleast put a high-flow cat - its not worth the fine

i found my problem. thanks for the tip jackassi .. went out and tapped on my exhaust with a wrench.. and it was my first heat shield on the exhaust near the engine making the rattling noise. I took it off and drove the car around to make sure and i never heard the rattling sound. Next question would be is there any harm in leaving this shield off? i just now tried to rebolt it on there as tight as i could and it is rattling again. If there is no danger to my car i might just leave it off but being unsure i wanted to get an opinion on that first. thanks

Ford wrench meaning hammer but a wrench works. Thats the A-pipe shield & no its not really that important. Your car will be ok with it removed. The pipe will last longer & will hopefully prevent any punctures in the pipe with it on. Your better off clamping it if you want to keep it on.

hmm never heard of a hammer being referred to as a ford wrench. what's the history associated with this term?

hmm never heard of a hammer being referred to as a ford wrench. what's the history associated with this term?

I dont know where it came from, probably from a person who doesn't like fords.