My dealership informs me that my exhaust heat shield is damaged and needs replacing, also saying some backing material is melting. Does anyone know where I can see a schematic to picture what this shield looks like and where it is located as it might just relate to another matter where I am very aware of smoggy fumes entering the cars cabin?
Thanks

 

Really need to be more specific...or more info.

How did it get "damaged" is it bent?, run over a branch or stick which moved shield onto exhaust or CAT??

Here is a parts listing of most of the exhaust heat shields, now more than likely it could be the one up front near the CAT (56-410)...

Rear Muffler shield is 56-431.

But AFAIK these shields are not known to 'melt'..

What information do you want to know?

 

Thats excellent thanks. I'm figuring 56-410. The dealer replaced the Cat shortly before I bought the car in Mch this year at about 39K miles. I'll have to quiz them a bit more as to why they replaced it? - I was assuming it got choked up but perhaps it had been damaged by something going under the car and maybe the heat shield was hurt in the same event. They claim it has a backing material that, while fireproof, is melting presumably because of closer proximity now to exhaust.
Anyway, I've been in this big thing with them for 2 months because theres a nasty smoggy (frankly smells like exhaust fumes to me) smell comes into the cabin when vent fan is blowing and car is stationary or reversing. Perhaps that backing material melting could be the source of this smell or maybe theres still a Cat issue. All their techs say they can't smell anything unusual but it smells like sitting behind an old 70's chevy in traffic to me.

 

i actually have a question, i bottomed out on a rock yesterday and now my car it making a dragging/grinding noise, cant really be heard from outside the car but on the inside it sounds loud. i got under the car and can see that the heat shield was scraped pretty badly, but i looked at the transmission and it looks like it was unaffected (meaning it was not touched no marks on it) the exhaust is not loose and i cant see anything broken at all. im wondering if by pushing the heat shield into the cat could cause this noise? i have no cel on but it sounds terrible in the car mainly at lower rpms and only when driving while giving it gas, once the clutch is depressed or in neutral I can rev it and it sounds normal. Any ideas?