I've been away from the forum for a while now because of school but I've been hitting it hard recently and came across several weight reduction threads. My question is about the exhaust heat shields. What's the worst possible thing that could happen if I removed them all. I noticed almost everyone has this listed in their list of things to remove.

 

umm if you park in a field or grass thats dry it can catch fire... or thats what all the ole timers say. Basically the shields offer a basic protection from road debris, and i guess its a fire prevention measure.

anyone else care to elaborate?

-Colin

 

mine are rusted away but the top half is still on top of the exhaust and i cant remove it, its making ugly noises when i drive but in order to get rid of it i would have to remove the whole exhaust

on another car my GF used to have (94 mazda 626 chronos) the same thing happened and the mech. was able to remove it without removing the exhaust.

as far as what will happen wit hthem removed ? well nothing happened to me or my GF so there u go

 

Well...one thing it'll make the interior of the car warmer expecially in heavy traffic or extended idles... plus like what Maxout said is you stand a chance on something getting hot enough that it'll catch on fire (example...a loose trashbag...dry grass...ect..) but this is more likely to happen around the Catalytic converter because thats what gets hot enough to do that. Plus...without the extra piece of insulation between you and the pipe it's possible it'll get louder inside the car. These are just things that are possible...nothings thats personal experience (except for the trashbag...eww...terrible smell...I thought some wires in my car had shorted out...)

 

I have removed all of them. There is no difference in sound, if anything it cured minor rattles. Exhaust hangers (stiffness, tightness) will have more of an effect on interior noise and resonance. I don't drive my car on grass.

 

mine are getting rusted out. I need to just take them off.

 

dont even remove it, it weighs barely anything and keeps exhaust temp in y-pipe, and not moving all around the engine bay, especially if u have an aftermarket intake. people actually wrap the exhaust manifold in heat wrap to keep heat in resulting in more power. removing this might actually make u lose power