rattle coming from exhaust

[mikeyfitz14]

I have have noticed that after the winter here in New England that there is a small rattle coming from under my car, so the other day I checked it out. It was coming from the heat shields(at least that's what I think they are) that are wrapped around the cats. There are what look like small fold down tabs that once held them on but two of them have snapped off, so when I go over bumps or whatever i get this annoying rattle. Does anyone know of a cheap fix for this or possibly a cheap replacement for the exhaust system. I'm a very poor college student and I have to make the most of every penny. I can try and snap some pics as soon as it stops raining here, should be around the year 2035 Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[askingxforxit]

Go to a junk yard and pull some off of another explorer.

 

[my pos mounty]

Believe it or not, that noise is very common.
You could pay someone to re-tack weld the heat shield back to the exhaust pipe, or do what I did. (ignore it until it stopped a month or 2 later)

 

[my pos mounty]

Go to a junk yard and pull some off of another explorer.

I don't know what the laws are around you, but the junkyards in New Hampshire will not sell used cats. They face fines in excess of 10 thousand for each one, so they wont "just look the other way" either.

 

[mikeyfitz14]

could it cause any serious damage if I were to just remove the last two tabs and take the shields off?

 

[my pos mounty]

Well, you wouldn't be able to park your truck on the grass anymore, or anywhere where grass (or leaves or anything flammable) could catch fire due to the heat thrown off the cats. Probably wouldn't happen, but better to be cautious than sorry, so I would not recommend it. If you climb under there some day (or is it year?) after this rain stops, you could bend the heat shield so it stops banging. Theres probably a local exhaust shop that might be able to tack it on there if it really bothers you that much. Shouldn't cost much, I'm guessing under $50 cuz it will literally take under 5 minutes.

 

[askingxforxit]

I don't know what the laws are around you, but the junkyards in New Hampshire will not sell used cats. They face fines in excess of 10 thousand for each one, so they wont "just look the other way" either.

I guess I should have gone outside and looked at mine before I said something. Wasn't aware that the heat shields were welded on rather than bolted on haha ooopsss

 

[my pos mounty]

No prob!
Only reason why I knew it is cuz I had the same noise, coming from the same place as the OP. And the only reason I knew what the fine was is that a friend of mine has an Expedition that has clogged cat, we tried to get one and we were told of the fines involved. His cost just for the replacement cat (from Ford) that would bolt on was somewhere around 1400. Can you say OUCH?

 

[VORTMAX_99]

Quite often you can use a radiator hose clamp or combination of them
to go around the outside of the shield and tighten them up that way.
We just had a muffler shield start rattling and what it was...was the
rear strap around the muffler and shield had disintetrated. Went
down to Lowes and got a couple of the larger clamps that they use
for drier vents and combined them to get a long enough clamp to go around
the unit.

Might be able to use a smaller combination of clamps for the heat shields
around the cats.

It's worth a try as its a really cheap fix.


Geo.