S.s. Heat Shield Clamps - Cheap, Easy, Effective!

[K9crew]

A few months ago my wife complained that the SC was making a weird noise taking off from a stop or driving slowly (e.g. around a parking lot). The noise sounded like a heat shield vibrating so I crawled under the car and noticed that one of the heat shield clamps had slid off the heatshield. The nut/bolt was so corroded that the bolt broke when I tried to remove it. At the time I replaced it with a stainless steel hose clamp. Yesterday I replace all SEVEN heat sheild clamps with nice shiny stainless steel hose clamps. Here are a couple of before/after shots. The OEM band is stainless but the bolt isn't so you can guess what happens! On my car there's another heat shield just in front of the differential where the exhaust splits to each muffler. My LS is now making a similar noise so hopefully it'll be as easy to fix as my SC.

:)

[Calvin L]

eww rust

good job!

[UCF3]

I'm glad to hear that you replaced them with new ones. A friend of mine removed them all together, and month later the area was black and thin. Ouch. He was also complaining about extra heat in the cockpit. Man that was a bad idea.

[K9crew]

I'm glad to hear that you replaced them with new ones.

That's a good point since other members may consider removing the heat shields altogether! :) The steel nuts/bolts were so corroded that I had to use a vice grip to break the clamps off ... I couldn't get a socket onto the head of the bolt! Luckily, stainless steel strain hardens rapidly when cold worked (that's why it's hard to drill) so they broke off quite easily. The new hose clamps should last the life of the car.

:)