heat shield necessary?

[PaulKim]

My cat heat shield rusted off and started dragging so i hammered it off with a stick. Somehow that seems to have made the floor heat shield come loose and now it is hanging on the exhaust.

Do i need to fix this? How much would it costm id like to just rip it out if that is ok.

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[exceptionalchris]

short answer, no it doesnt really matter.

[Tom]

It is there for a reason . . . however, I have had many cars without those heat shields, with no catastrophic results, so if beating that with a big hammer until it comes off makes you happy, have fun banana:

[college man]

I would reattach it. 🙂

[george gonzalez]

They don’t put them on for no reason.

The top one keeps the floor of your car from heating up. On a long trip the radiated heat can add up and melt your undercoating and soundproofing and undercarpet foam, maybe even a wire harness or two.

The bottom one is mostly useless, unless you’re like me and drive out to the county flea market every Sunday to look at old crap and the asphalt parking lot is full so you park on the unmowed grassy field nextdoor. No prob except in August the grass is all brown and if you park on it with an exposed cat converter you may be getting a new car! And a new car for everyone parked on the grass too. Fun times.

[Paul]

I replaced the heat shield (2 halves) because the car is park outside, and the wind frequently blows leaves, debris, plastic bags, etc under the car. But, removal of the rusted bolts was more of a headache that it was worth.

I would fix the floor heat shield though.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Good man for fixing it. I’ve often dealt with this issue in this manner which can be an inexpensive alternative.

[PaulKim]

That’s a cool trick but my cat shield fell off. The one I’m talking about is the big flat one. How can I reattach it? Or just remove it? There is too much ice and snow to do it right now so I can’t get under the car to get a closer look.

[Dave]

Let me take a stab at what happened. The cheap aluminum used for a heat shield has corroded away and the mounting holes are now bigger than the fasteners, Right so far? So what you should do is take some sheet metal (available at most hardware stores) Drill a hole in it so the bolt fits through it and cut the patch so it is reasonably larger than the hole in the heat shield. Copy this procedure as many times as needed to re-attach the shield.
If it is too far gone then use some (what I call) plumbers tape, A metal strip with holes in it. Run this to each fastener creating a spiderweb of strapping to hold up the shield.

[EricTheCarGuy]

If the fasteners aren’t broken you can sometimes use washers on the fasteners to take up the space that is missing. You might also consider rivets. It doesn’t have to be fort Knox, it just needs to be on there and not rattle to be effective.

Keep us posted.

[Author]

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