G'day

[Scotty]

Hi everyone, I just bought myself a dark blue 1998 Ti with 105K on the clock. I am absolutely loving it but have a couple of queries that i was hoping someone on this forum might be able to help me with.

The car is in excellent condition but the exhaust produces a noise that to my ear is between a rattle and a healthy exhaust note above 3500rpm. Does the typical Ti get conspicuously louder at these revs? Am I just being paranoid about my beautiful new baby?

While I am very much enjoying the power available from 80-100km/h up, considering it is a 4 cylinder, I am finding it relatively sluggish off the mark (my old 91 mazda 626 was definitely quicker over the first 50m). Could an upgrade of the exhaust system improve this, or are there any non-major, non-expensive modifications that could improve the low end?

The last thing is that I put some cds in the changer in the dark and stupidly put two cds in one slot. Now the stereo won't read cds. It says in the manual not to do this exact thing or the cd player will be damaged. My question is, what's it gonna cost me? Surely i'm not the first idiot to have made this mistake.

Anyway, good on whoever got this site going and it's great to have some people who can relate to the way I feel about my car. I've wanted a 3 series since i was about twelve and every time i've bought a car, i've had a long look at a Beamer but made the sensible decision because the types of Beamers I could afford were not the types you want to try keeping on the road on a student's income. Finally I can afford a decent one!!

The Ti is even better than the typical 3 because it looks sportier, has a meaner stance on the road and stands out from all of the four door sedans you see everywhere. I really have been surprised by the amount of heads I've turned, even here on the Gold Coast where every second car has an exhaust pipe you could fit a bowling ball in. Hatchbacks full of teenage girls are challenging me to races etc, buying this car is one of the best things I've ever done!

[TiTime]

Congrats and welcome. Is your new ti all stock? Pics?

[Scotty]

So far, completely stock. I probably won't mess with it too much, except that if I can upgrade the exhaust to even out the power and improve the note, I will be tempted. I like your wee spoiler.

[cali-ti]

the rattle may be the heat shield over the catalytic converter. easy enough to check, just get under there before starting your car in the morning and try jiggling the heat shield. also check any other areas of the exhaust that may be hitting against the heat shields above it, broken exhaust hangers, broken or loose vibration damper (believe this was added in 1997) ... those kinds of things.

there's really not much that can be done cheaply to improve low end torque. supercharger works well for that, but it's not cheap

exhaust and intake mods do little for these cars, but certainly can cost a good bit of money. keep it in the higher revs and it's happy

[Scotty]

Thank you, that was the kind of advice I was after. The last thing i want to do is spend money making it sound better, but not go faster. And it sounds great now above 60km/h with the revs above 3500rpm, so I guess I'll solve all my problems at once by driving it as you've suggested. Thank you! I'll climb under and give the system a look over tomorrow (and thanks for mentioning that i should do this before I've driven the car. Aussies aren't all simple, you know).

[cali-ti]

lol ... things can potentially expand and then not rattle after heating up, that was the main reason for suggesting that i forget the exact rev range where my cat heat shield would rattle before. i used some stainless hex head bolts threaded in at various points to secure it and it's been a lot better since then.

[Scotty]

Thanks again. I'll let you know how I go.