Creaky exhaust on Miata NC

Like, snapping / popping sounds caused by expansion / contraction? Or, it vibrating against other things?

Chris

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Hi Chris,

Snapping, popping sounds caused by expansion/contraction for sure. It's just really excessive and has only really started to happen in the last

2-300 miles. Note that the car has only done 3k! I've had it on a ramp and all seems well, the cat hasn't been damaged or anything.

Thanks for the fast response btw!

C

My guess is that it's just because your car is so new. By the time you get 8 or 10k on it it will likely be less noticeable however, it could be that the metals they are using are just prone to this. Hopefully a couple NC folks will chime in here for you but 3k miles, it's not even broken in yet ;-)

Chris

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Chris/Net,

Thanks for the reply guys. I haven't seen anyone else really complain about it, but I did take it back to the dealers and it was a new one for them. For what it's worth, I think you're about right and with time this will settle down. I was thinking along the same lines as Net and perhaps loosening the various couplings when the engine is warm, kinda stress relieving the system if you know what I mean.

Cheers

I've got 5,000 miles on my '09 and if anything, I think the exhaust has gotten a bit quieter. I normally only hear it for a few seconds after I've stopped the car. The colder weather may be a factor, but I don't know if it would make it better (lower absolute temperature) or worse (greater temperature extremes).

I'm only a sample of one, and in the Miata forums, people have remarked on the noise when you turn off the engine, but to the extent that you've described, I do not think your situation is normal, certainlt not typical.

I have no advice, since it's not a problem/solution that I've read about, but I suggest you search the groups/forums as it's likely to have happened to someone before. Perhaps loosening and re-tightening the associated fasteners when the system is warm would alleviate some of the mechanical stress (if that's even the root cause and it's not something internal to the exhaust system). Good luck

Net

By the way, I kind of like the little pops / snaps of an exhaust expansion / contraction. It's not as exciting as the huge boom we used to hear about 5 seconds after an RX3 was turned off, when the unburned gasses in the exhaust would get hot enough to ignite in a nice / loud backfire ;-) You could practically set your stopwatch by it on some of them.

Chris

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