I dont know how it happened but my guess is that my sat in the garage for most of 2005 while i was in Iraq. Now when I got back and started driving my car again, I noticed this rattling, but only when I wasn't gettin on it. and alot more when i down shifted. Well after about 2 months of looking for this dang rattle, I finally found that the bracket right before the flex-pipe on the exhaust was broke right at the bolt holes. I welded back to gether (not the best job, but it works) and its good now. But my question is has this happened to anyone else?

which bracket?? there is one that holds that cat on the car..there is a TSB to get that replaced if you have warrenty and that has happened to everyone.

1 of 2 things:

Cat Bracket

Heat Shield

Almost all SVT's are known for having had these two problems...

I vote for CAT Bracket.
See here:
CAT Bracket TSB: 05-14-12 (http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86936)

wow WD40, you are so right that is how exactly how mine looked when i finally found it. why do you think it happened from stress or what?

^^^Just responded to your PM...but for the benefit of everyone else...

The stock CAT is pretty heavy.
There's a lot of stress in that area of the exhaust system.

For me...
I'm sure that heavy duty shifting from 1-2 and 2-1 on the AutoCross course didn't help.