Cat Converters

Is it possible for old cat converters to fall apart on the inside creating annoying ticking noises? On my 96 I get this irritating hollow metallic exhaust tick on acceleration, more noticable on the outside but very noticable in the cab under heavy accel. I just installed a new muffler, and it sounds awesome, other than this, (which has been existent since I have owned the vehicle). It's rather sick sounding.You can hear it under the passenger floor mat (right where one of the converters is). They are original at 155,000. I know for sure one needs to be replaced. Also if something, like a tool, was stuck in one, would it make noise? The previous owner got bored one day and decided to "clean" out the cat converters, screwing up other things in the process. It wouldn't suprise me if by accident whatever he was using to clean them out got stuck in one. Hopefully this summer I will replace them, I also need to replace one of the manifolds, cuz the previous owner welded the pre-cat pipe, and the donut flange, to the manifold (no joke!), which melted the three bolts which screws the pipe into the manifold. :banghead:

Many years ago, on my old Jeep, I replaced the CAT with one of those on-line cheapies. After 3 or 4 years of usage I started hearing a loud rattling sound from the CAT.

Took the CAT out of the car and noticed that the insides of the CAT was made of some kind of honey-comb ceramic material that was breaking down which was causing the loud rattling.

Took a rod and broke out the rest of the material inside the CAT, emptied it out, reinstalled it on the Jeep and all is was well.