Any issues without an exhaust heat shield ?

One of my exhaust heat shields was rattling and when I looked under the truck it was hanging partially loose and came completey off with just a small tug. It's the one under the rear passenger side, mid way back but forward of the muffler. Is there any reason to replace this or is it ok just not being there??

 

Nobody has an opinion on this?

 

Are u talking about the shields surrounding the cats?
I ripped mine off long ago and havent burned down

 

My neighbor has a 2005 tacoma and I told him about the rattle I was having and had me stumped where it was coming from. He told me he used a stainless steel band clamp on his heat shield, so I did the same and the rattle is gone. I would use this method to reinstall the heat shield, because if it didn't have a purpose Toyota would never have it there in the first place.

 

Long tube headers ftw

 

Where does a heat shield rattle sound like it's coming from? I have an intermittent rattle from the drivers footwell/dash area that I haven't been able to track down. I might have to check the heat shields this weekend.

 

A lot of rattling comes from rusted and loose heat shields,I would repair mine.

 

Add larger washers to nuts to disperse the load. The shields' mounting holes wear out and sometimes widen over the years.

 

I thought at first the sound was coming from my universal joints, but it never occurred to me the heat shield were loose.

 

No problem.... those things don't really do much in the grand scheme of things

 

I took mine off cause they were rattling. No problems yet and it's been a year/ 20,000 miles

 

Crawl under when the trucks cool.... smack the shield around.
Next move is up to you

 

Easy enough to put it back on with a couple stainless hose clamps. I did it to mine.

 

For the people who said use a hose clamp, did you just wrap the exhaust with the heat shield? If it's not a problem I'm probably going to end up just yanking them off, here in MA with all the road salt those nuts are going to be a royal PITA to get off and I'm probably going to snap at least one of them. I pulled one off since it was barely hanging on but now another one somewhere is rattling, it's probably only a matter of time before the others all start to fall off.

 

I previously owned an Xterra that always had this issue. I replaced the factory rusted, broken, rattling straps with hose clamps. I'm in northern Minnesota though, and because of the road salt and whatnot, I ended up replacing rusted, broken, rattling hose clamps about once a year as well. And yes, I just wrapped it around the exhaust, replacing the factory clamp that was originally in the same place.

 

Mine came off and wedged it self about two feet behind where it was suppose to be. Defiantly felt warmer in the footwell. I'm going with oversized washers and some type of clamp

 

If you mean the textured aluminum ones mounted to the body, above the exhaust pipes/muffler, mine have been gone for many, many miles. They partially rusted off, rattled off and got ripped off because any rattles and vibrations annoy me. I could only see it causing an issue during prolonged periods of idling.

 

It’s to prevent the grass from catching fire when parking on grass with 500 plus degree exhaust pipe. This is something I have read online, not something I know from experience.