Had a scare last night with the 91...

[trwp72]

Last night, went to go eat out at Ruby Tuesday's, and on the way up there, the '91 started to make a major racket under the front of the car on acceleration... Sort of a clattering noise... If anyone has ever heard a harmonic balance starting to come apart, you know what it sounded like... (Or someone sticking a piece of metal into the radiator fan!) So anyway, since I am still laid up from this damn surgery... At least as far as crawling around under the car... (And today the surgery site decided to start "leaking" So I also had a Doctors appointment.. I was like- what next???) I took it to the mechanic... And had him check it... So he put it over his oil change pit... And ran the car while he checked out the underside... (Of course, as usual, when you take a car to a mechanic, it was making NO noise at this point..) Then he shut it off, and went back under the car and checked the harmonic balancer, it was tight, checked the transmission flex plate, no problems, u-joints, no problems... Then I heard a rattle from under the car, just like the rattle I heard... So I asked him ok, what the heck is it?? (Waiting for the worst at this point, the way my luck has been running lately) It was a loose catylitic converter heat shield.... It broke loose at a weld... And it was one that had been fixed before I got the car... So I left there, went to my exhaust guy, and he looked at it, We are going to add a piece of steel to the shield, then re weld it, to beef it up, so it will not come loose again... Also , he found the transmission mount is going to need replaced... So that will be done Monday... He is thinking that that may have caused the heat shield to come loose... because it is in the area of the trans... He says it looked like the transmission moving around may have been pushing against the heat shield, and broke it loose... Thank God for once, it was something simple!


Also, going Monday to try to find four pristene doors for it, and a trunk lid... To get it ready for paint... The bottom of the doors, and the bottom lip of the trunk has some minor rust issues... I figured it would be easier, and less costly to just replace them than trying to fix the rust, and then have it come back... One of the local u- pull- it's has about 4 nice condition 91's... Hoepfully they will have some nice doors... and a least one good trunk lid... Problem around here is, the idiots will punch the trunk lock out, instead of looking in the car for the keys.. and ruin a perfectly good trunk lid... since they screw up the lock hole... (This yard always puts the keys in the ignition when they have them, but people don't bother to look... And just use a screwdriver to get in the trunk...)

Tom....

[RobClark]

Sounds like the scare I had. Horrible metal-metal noise under car. I concluded the engine or the transmission had died. Drove it (slowly) to mechanic who said it sounded bad. Told me to drive it home and NO WHERE ELSE, until he could get time to see it.

Turns out was just one of my cats had rusted out and started flapping around. I was never so happy to here is was 'just' the cats.

[88Vic]

Sounds kinda like when the insides of my old cat when it started to break up and come out the tailpipes. That was what made me decide to have it removed and not replace it

[packman]

The heat shield came off entirely on my old Malibu on my way back from work one night. I crawled under there the next day to find the heatshield missing off of the Camaro cat (2.5" OEM cat). The following Friday, traffic backed up in the same area and I recognized the heat shield lying on the side of the road, so when we came to a stop, I got out and picked it up. My father welded it back into place the following weekend.


Packman

[trwp72]

Well, the exhaust guy I use wire welded it back in place, then went down both sides of it with a bead... to make sure it doesn't come loose again... He also did the other side while he was at it... as it was starting to rattle a little bit... now it is nice and quiet!

[gadget73]

Those heat shields are annoying. I ripped them off when they started to rattle on my car. Only one of the 4 tabs was still in place by that point.

[trwp72]

I don't know if they do that much deflecting heat away from the car... But I figured if I took them off, my floorboards would get hotter... And around here, any heat you can deflect away from your car, the better!

[P72Ford]

I don't know if they do that much deflecting heat away from the car... But I figured if I took them off, my floorboards would get hotter... And around here, any heat you can deflect away from your car, the better!

You're very right. The heat shields on my cats are long gone. The last time I had the carpet out, the insulation/ carpet backing was actually burned (on the inside of the car), from heat generated by the cats. I was amazed...

Another thought; I used to have an issue with condesation developing under the rug in my car. It occured to me that the lack of heat shields (on the cats) could allow excessive heat to enter the cabin. Then when the car is shut off, condensation develops under the rug, which in turn will rust the floor out.

They are there for a reason... my new exhaust will have them.

[p71towny]

I ripped all mine off and painted them with hight temp header paint. Looks good so far.