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I have a short section of the heat shield in the exhaust tunnel that is starting to break loose. One end is starting to rattle against the exhaust itself as it droops down. It is right ahead of the rear wheels near the end of the tunnel. I haven't gotten under it to get a closer look yet so I couldn't tell how these attach. If they do bolt up, it's likely that the bolts have rusted away. 2005 R53 160k mi daily driver in Ohio...
Have that with one of my R53. On mine the heat shield corroded away around the bolts. The car is from upstate NY, salt belt. But yes, they do just screw up. I used heat tape to hols it up until I can get an replacement. It should be easy to replace if you have the car up of the ground, maybe 4 bolts?
If the hole in the shield is not too big you can try using a fender washer to hold the shield up. Fender washers are large diameter and not too thick. You could even bend the washer if it needed to conform to a curved shape.
Got under this evening to get a closer look and mine also had corroded away around the rear bolts. The front attachment is much different (I think) and that is what has me worried long term. In the middle it is a pair of nuts that need to be loosened and I think the rear heat shield slides in under the nut and washer. It is a common nut that captures both the front and rear heat shields. I tried to loosen that nut but it was so badly corroded that I decided to leave it alone for fear of never being able to retighten it again. It felt as if the nut and bolt the nut was attached to were spinning together - like the bolt was captive somehow on the other side only it wasn't actually captive any more. Pictures of my before and after below. Used a thin piece of brass sheet metal I had laying around. Made a cardboard template to determine the bolt spacing, drilled to just fit the bolt size and carefully replaced everything. Felt so crusty under there...
Rattle is gone and I hope this holds for a long time because even though I could buy a replacement shield, I worry I won't be successful trying to replace it due to the very rusted middle carrier bolts/nuts common to the front and rear shields.
Thanks. There's a lot of surface area holding up what's left of that end of the heat shield - so long as the bolts stay put and the other end doesn't let go...
I'm changing my exhaust to Milltek when I get it from ECS Tuning and I'll look this over when I get drop the old exhaust. Talking about "on time" post. Thanks.
03-17-2019, 07:59 AM
