blaugranamd Posted June 13, 2019 Posted June 13, 2019 Fix one problem on this car and another one shows up. Had an occasional clicking sound the last two days then on my drive home today a loud clang, felt like I ran over something metal, and watched a piece of something get left behind on the highway. Get under the car once I got home and the bottom half of the catalytic converter heat shield is missing and the other half is just resting on the pipe not connected to anything. Obviously removed it by just lifting it off. How essential is replacing this stupid thing? Any safety issues?
awfulwaffle Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Not an issue. No aftermarket pipe comes with a heat shield, and none of us have burned yet. I suppose you could heat wrap it if you really wanted.
apexi Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 I sort of looked into this recently. I had issues with the heat shield behind that one, under the shifter, and still read some threads on heat shields in general. One of my concerns would be the cv axle boot that is directly above that rear cat. It may dry out and split like what seems to happen to turbo owners here. The money to replace the shield looks more appealing when you consider the time and money to replace the cv axle, or the messy job of rebooting the axle. I totally understand when people say they're not needed. But I can't help of how many cars have them, and how much money automakers could save if they didn't put heat shields on things. As someone that worries about everything, that makes me want to keep them on. They're stupid expensive, $30 for each half. I was going to suggest going the junkyard route, or seeing if an online junkyard would send you one cheap. In your shoes, I'd probably go that route. See if I can get a used bottom half cheap, assuming the top half is still good and has holes for bolts that you can use. Going to a junkyard to get a bottom half would suck with how rusty the bolts probably are, just thinking of how they are on my car, they don't even look like bolts and nuts anymore. So with shipping, an online junk yard would probably come close to the dealer cost of $30 for a new bottom.
JmP6889928 Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Bottom missing is OK. Top is what keeps everything from melting, although the aftermarket DP don't have any as awfulwaffle said. You can easily fabricate one for the top of the converter with sheet aluminum, some aluminum flat stock and a bit of patience.
blaugranamd Posted June 15, 2019 Author Posted June 15, 2019 So found some random nuts and bolts and bolted the top half of the cat heat Shield back on to exhaust shield just forward of the cat. Back end is just resting on the pipe behind the cat but should hold and maybe rattle a bit at least until I can get a new lower half. I don't park over anything flammable so should be pretty safe now yes?
ehsnils Posted June 15, 2019 Posted June 15, 2019 I sort of looked into this recently. I had issues with the heat shield behind that one, under the shifter, and still read some threads on heat shields in general. One of my concerns would be the cv axle boot that is directly above that rear cat. It may dry out and split like what seems to happen to turbo owners here. The money to replace the shield looks more appealing when you consider the time and money to replace the cv axle, or the messy job of rebooting the axle. The CV boot issue has been a Subie issue since forever, I had it on the '82 Subie I had once, and it also impacts the lubricant in the joint so even if the boot is OK the joint may die.
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