Why is my car making a loud rattling sound after an exhaust repair?
An exhaust repair can shift the pipe too close to the heat shield, causing it to touch and create a loud rattle during acceleration and idling. Removing a rusted or cracked heat shield entirely or replacing it with exhaust wrap or adhesive raises questions about potential downsides and whether it is safe to take off.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using zip ties to tighten the heat shield
- 2Bending the shield tabs back to create clearance
- 3Removing the heat shield and using exhaust wrap or heat shield adhesive
- 4Replacing missing bolts to secure the heat shield and eliminate the rattle
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“now the heat shield and exhaust I think might be touching and making a loud rattling sound when accelerating and sometimes idling.”source ↗
“I would like to keep the heat shield if possible but the guy that fixed it recommended maybe taking out the heat shield and using exhaust wrap or heat shield adhesive, would their be a downside to the wrap or adhesive?”source ↗
“Hello. I’m having a terrible rattle come from this rusted piece under the catalytic converter. Would it do much harm just taking it off? As you can see it’s missing a bolt and there’s a crack. I don’t see it doing much anyways”source ↗
Where this came up
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