legacycentral bbs

OK guys, I know I can't be the only driver on here who's become more than slightly annoyed at the rattly stock exhaust manifold heat shields on our cars that get louder as the miles go by. Mine is harmonic; it only rattles loudly about every 500-750 RPM but at idle, my car sounds like a beater.

After discarding the MacGyver-esque nail, shim, or hose clamp methods, I had an idea: cut the existing shields off with an angle grinder or hacksaw and replace them with thermal tape or 'exhaust wrap'. Has anyone used this approach to silence their rattle?

My car doesn't have any shields on and never had a problem. I will be removing the ones off my wife soon, she has been nagging me to fix it for awhile.

For a normal DD I'd agree that you don't even need the exhaust wrap. Might actually be better without it, as wrap is known to trap moisture and accelerate rust on manifolds/headers.

I've thought about trying to fab up my own shields out of galvanized sheet metal and tacking them onto my exhaust (mainly for my aftermarket DP and section of the cat-back near the rear diff), but I came to conclusion that it wouldn't be worth the effort, as other factors will kill my car long before the increase in temps around those areas will have any noticeable effects.

Ill be cutting my head shields off when i drop the exhaust next weekend. Ill take pics as well, for those suffering the same rattle.

James614 wrote:For a normal DD I'd agree that you don't even need the exhaust wrap. Might actually be better without it, as wrap is known to trap moisture and accelerate rust on manifolds/headers.

I did read a few old threads that mentioned this phenomenon. My thought was to make the tape a maintenance item and rewrap it say, as often as I would change my spark plugs. A pain, yes, but worth it to deter rust. Also, you make a good point in that my car will likely get new headers or die before the temp difference becomes a factor.

Drop those pics in here, thewaterboy!