Looking at the engine from above from the front of the car there is a heat shield on the back of the motor over the exhaust manifold. On my daughter's car the bolt on the passenger side (US car) just spins freely (I guess the thread in the engine block is stripped) and so the heat shield rattles. Any suggestions as to how to sort that out?

Ian

 

Take it to a muffler shop and have them weld the shield on. Or extract the bolt, retap, and put in a new bolt.

 

I wouldn't weld it on as you might need to get to whats underneath at some point in time. Option 2 sounds like a much better solution, tap it and get a new bolt..

 

I would try to get that bolt out and redo it with a helicoil if you cannot retap it good.

 

Since it appears that bolt is not in a critically stressed attachment, I would take some very fine steel wool and wrap a string as much as you can around the threads of the bolt. Reinsert the bolt and see if it takes.. If not, stuff a small amount of steel wool into hole and try again. It may take a couple of attempts based on the condition of the threads in the hole. I had to do this on the two screws that hold down the cover on the air filter and the attach screws on a Weather Tech sunroof wind deflector and it worked great. Been doing this on stripped threads of all types, both metal and plastic for over fifty years and it works almost all of the time. Remember to be patient and expect to make more than one attempt and adjust the amount of steel wool if necessary. I always do this on stripped threads before having to spend $$ and time on plan B. I would not apply this fix to critical attachments that are under great pressure or stress, like a cylinder head to an engine block or a spark plug, etc. etc. Then I would get some professional or well experienced assistance. Good luck.

 

The bolt broke flush in the hole. I used heat with a ez out and the ex out broke while trying to get it out the housing cracked so now I have to get a new one