Last month a rattle is suddenly heard from my car. Under the front passenger area. I was pretty sure what it was - the heat shield for the cat con has broken off. Not unexpected after 220,000 miles. I don’t feel like jacking up the car and crawling under there so I stopped at a muffler shop i have used before. Out in the country, not busy, great prices.
I talked to the guy at the desk and gave him the keys. About 15 minutes later the mechanic comes into the waiting area and tells me it is a loose heat shield. “We will just pull it off and you’re good”. At least that was what I thought he said. I asked desk guy how much I owed and he said, “Nothing”. Awesome. I thanked him for the quick service and gave him a tenner for their time.
Jumped in the ol’ Scion and fired 'er up. Rattle, rattle, rattle. They didn’t do anything! They just told me what I needed to do! WTF? Maybe it isn’t considered part of the exhaust system. No wonder he seemed surprised at the ten bucks.
Wait, what? Was there an actual risk that @mixdenny would have a widowed wife because the heat shield fell off his car? If there was truly a serious possibility of bodily harm involved, that’s not funny.
Or is that whoosh I hear whistling in my ears? I hope so.
The car manufacturers would not be installing heat shields if they didn’t do something useful. That something is avoiding heating up the floor of the car to the point that something catches fire. Either oily greasy gunk stuck to the underside of the car, or the cabin interior.
To be sure, shield-less cars don’t catch fire often. But it’s a darn good idea to have one in there.