Rattly sound - engine mount or exhaust?

[burple999]

I'm getting a frequent sound in my mk3 that sounds like something jumping up and down in the glovebox. I emptied the glovebox but sure enough the noise was still there.

This morning setting off it was worse for the first few miles of my journey and seemed to be coming directly from below the gear lever area. A slight gentle knocking - not related to engine revs, speed or direction really. Then it went until later on in the journey and it started to sound like it was coming from the depths of the dashboard.

I thought it might be the engine mount but I couldn't replicate it on demand by sharp accelerating and braking. So maybe it's an exhaust mount or something.

Before I take a look later and do more investigating does anyone have any other ideas of common problems that it might be?

[Wayne]

Loose heatshield or maybe the cat.

[Len]

Heatshield over the exhaust manifold or under the CAT.

[burple999]

The back box of my exhaust is aftermarket. No idea which one as it was on when I bought the car.

Looks like a rubber support had worked its way off and every so often the exhaust was hitting the supporting metal beam underneath. At least I think that's what the cause was as it seems to have fixed it. However, there was a big stone on wedged into the metal beam which may have been the cause - making the gap between it and the exhaust nearer. Either way all systems normal. Back to normal running and trying to get 44mpg every day on the journey to work. 43.9 is my best so far!

[Paul86S2]

If you cant reach 44mpg then try it the other way and see if you can get it down below 18mpg for a tankfull.

Paul

[Len]

Never seen 18! But have got it down to 19.6mpg!

[Shady Pioneer]

My exhaust can make noises sometimes, but only when hitting a bump and that's hitting against the shield at the rear, originally my heatshield for the cat was the cause of the major noise below the car. As said, try that and see, if it's loose you should be able to touch it (obviously when the car hasn't been used for some time or you'll singe off your skin lol).

[Matty-MK3]

For future reference (if anyone EVER searches ):

We have had a customer complain about this (not a Golf, but still).

There was a 10mm Snap-On socket inside the dash, irritating the hell out of him.

Free Snap-On for us though!