AZfury

show me ONE recall about an issue about a vehicles cat. converter heating up and possibly causing a fire. btw theres also another body shield on top of where the cat would sit that will still deflect any heat ...or fire

SSMAP2

Tighten up the heat shield. I've had plenty with shitty spot welds that cause that rattle noise. Not on s2ks but same rattle

dustin02rsx

I have the same issue. I only notice it at idle though, but it's very annoying.


How are you test pipe guys keeping your cel from coming on? Defoulers?

Car Analogy

Ouch. I said recalls about engine fires, not cats. Point I was making is you don't mess around with potential fire, even if you didn't ever personally hear of that issue happening.

When I said cat fires have happened, well, they have. Maybe not associated with a recall, maybe not in normal circumstances. But cats get hot, and if something goes wrong they can get real hot. What do you think the shields are there for?

Is it likely to cause a fire? No, not at all. Is it possible? Yes indeed. Don't mess with potential fire. If its as easy as JB weld the shield back on, why wouldn't you (him)?

AZfury

Well we all said what we had to say, up to the op to decide what he wants to do.

TheRook

Interesting info you guys are giving here, I'll definitely be taking all that into consideration.

I didn't have time Weds to take the shield apart but I just finished checking it out after I got home today. Unfortunately those bolts that hold the shield together were so corroded, I couldn't get a wrench or socket on them, I was going to drill them out but my drill wasn't charged. So instead I tried taking out the O2 sensor to see if the internals were loose but my wrenches were either too small or too big, I'll have to pick one up later. I still don't know what it is yet, but I'll say that the heat shield is tight even without some bolts, it wouldn't budge at all when I tried messing with it using my hands. I don't know if I'll have time to look at it again this weekend but I called up an acquaintance who owns an exhaust shop so he told me to bring it by Tuesday to look at it.

If I have time I may go to home depot and pick up some bolts and washers but I suspect its the cat. All this talk about the heat shield is making me think. I'm not too sure about a test pipe cause I'd prefer my car not to smell like crap lol but IIRC HFCs don't even have mounting points for the OEM heat shield so does that mean it won't build up as much heat as the OEM cat?

Car Analogy

Smaller cat, less heat. But still potential for something to go wrong and more heat than expected. OEM has to account for unexpected, aftermarket does not.

KSs2k

I was having the same noise on MY02. I didn't want to go through the headache of having an aftermarket CAT fitted in place, so I simply ordered an Invidia test pipe to replace my Oem CAT. I bought spark plug defoulers and did the quick mod to fix the CEL.

There is still a couple noises here and there, nothing like it used to be. It might be from my Amuse exhaust it from the heatshield on the headers.

The point is, test pipe will save you time and money and probably fix the noise. If not, at least your car will sound better!

TheRook

Just to update, it was the heat shield. Took it to an acquaintance, he spot welded it, noise gone. Thanks for all the advice everyone!