My friend and I just finished putting on a Magnaflow catback on my 02 Camaro. After some final adjustments, everything is about 95% finished, except for a slight vibration. We located the vibration; the inlet pipe has little clearance over the crossmember above the axle. The vibrations only occur when going on a steep hill or sometimes when I am at a dead stop with the brakes on. We have double checked all clamps to make sure they are seated correctly and the bolts tightened. We were considering using some sort of soft spacer between the pipe and crossmember, but we are unsure what. Perhaps some kind of HVAC tape that we can wrap around the pipe? Or perhaps some sort of rubber spacer?

 

Is it loud enough that you hear it over the exhuast?

 

From the inside of the car yes, from the outside, no.

 

Normally when we have a clearance issue you can just loosen up everything in the exhaust , twist, pry, tweak the pipe away from the problem area and retighen everying. If none of that is enough you may have an issue with a motor mount or tranny mount that is letting the motor move too much.

 

Well, we got it all set for the most part. We undid all of the clamps, moved the midpipe back a bit, twisted the next pipe, twisted the muffler a bit and then played with the exhaust tips. I even took some radiator house clamps, and used those to keep the rubber fastner on the hanger from sliding up and down the hanger. As it is now, the tailpipes are now much better aligned (they stuck out too much before, and were slightly uneven). 4 and a half hours later, 3 ripped t shirts, 1 broken ratchet, and 2 exhausted guys later, it seems to be all set. No rattling from when I gave it the muffler a good handshake, haven't had time to test drive it yet. Thanks for the help guys.