Earlier this week I had a flat as I was driving from Detroit to Toledo to see my dad, I had a flat tire (right rear passenger) caused by some blade-like piece of metal that somehow wedged itself into the tire. Somehow, the car felt fine on the freeway, but after pulling in and walking outside, I see a flat tire. My dad offered to help fix/patch the tire. But while I was putting the tire back on, the heat shield crumbles off and falls to the ground. I now know what the cause of the "old mattress" sound that I mentioned in a thread a while ago. Seems like the (original) exhaust is loose. Back to my ?, should I be concerned since the heat shield came off? Also I'm closing in on 129K, would it be time to change the whole exhaust as well since this is a sign of a slowly deteriorating exhaust?

 

Which heat shield? If its the one on the outer side of the catalytic converter (i.e. between the catalytic converter and the ground) then you can just ignore it - just don't park over a pile of dry leaves

If its one of the heat shields between the exhaust and the underside of the car - especially near the fuel tank, you probably want to replace it.

 

its the heat shield behind the right rear passenger wheel