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My 1998 with 150,000 on it is doing the death rattle from the catalytic converter.

I think part of my noise problem is piston-slap. Apparently (I'm a lurker out at naxja.org) for the 96s they lined the cylinder walls with teflon, which instead of fixing the issue only exacerbated it.

My cat probably didn't need to be replaced. I got a little over a grand into trial/error fixes when the engine noises started. Went from a broken fan clutch ($400 fix that didn't solve the problem), then to the cat/exhaust ($600 fix that didn't solve the problem), then was told I had a cracked exhaust manifold (price tag was $1000, which resulted in my taking it to get a second opinion), then was told (by a series of mechanics at the second opinion place) that I had a broken manifold gasket ($3 part, $700 labor), a broken transmission (didn't get a price on that), and then either a failing rod bearing and/or main engine bearing (new engine: $4000).

At that point I went for a THIRD opinion. To my Mom's mechanic for the previous 20 years. Who told me NOT to try to drive it up to him (five states away), but that if I was just using it for local travel and could tolerate the noise (and the looks I got for the noise) to run it until whatever it was broke.

Best advice of the lot. Given to me in 2003 with 74k on the odometer. Now 2011 with <120k and it still runs. AND after a hard turn a few months back the noise (which has increased over the years suddenly spiked ... then went away almost entirely. Go figure.

AND after a hard turn a few months back the noise (which has increased over the years suddenly spiked ... then went away almost entirely. Go figure.

Well, with your description of the belly pan, maybe it was a chunk of it caught somewhere rattling, and it finally fell out with the hard turn.

I'm going to have to dive into the front-end, I hit a bump yesterday on my commute (same bump every day) and the whole front-end shimmied and it felt like a tire was just bouncing - maybe just the shocks finally going (or maybe I knocked a wheel-weight off, but it didn't really do much except when driving over the bumps), but for about $150 and my time under the front-end, I can replace all the rubber bushings, another $80 for decent shocks, and then to the alignment shop. The stock rubber is basically shot, and I don't want to waste time/money on the alignment without replacing the bushings first.