I've got a 2001 Accord, 5speed, 200K++

On the way home after dropping the kids at school my heat shield came off, well part came off and it drug on the ground on the way home (about a mile), of course everyone had to honk and tell me about it.

I'm not sure what this thing actually does, anyone know?? I'm guessing it's somewhat important or it wouldn't be there. Is it going to hurt to drive it until I can get the part and replace it? Won't be until about Wed (5 days from now) that I can get to it.

Thanks for any help.

 

You should be okay to drive a few days with out it.
The heat shield works 2 ways, it helps retain heat around the Catalytic Converter, and it keeps you from starting a fire if you drive thru tall dry grass, or have a wad of newspaper blow under the car.

 

Heat sheilds are usually a real easy thing to fix yourself, saving quite a bit time and money if you have to bring it to a shop. Often they just rust through where bolted to the car. If you are lucky, the heat sheild is generally otherwise intact and you can use a cheap plastic zip tie to attach looped through the rusted hole and then to any other hole or bracket on the car. Just make sure it does not touch any part of the muffler. Good luck.

 

Sounds good, I should be able to get to it by wednesday so I'll keep the off roading on hold until then, yuck yuck.

I can't salvage it, it fell off on one end and drug on the pavement for about a miles and it's all mangled, it's been loose for a couple years, guess I should have fixed it awhile ago.

Any ideas on where to pick one up? I like to use rockauto.com but they don't have it.

 

I personally have put out 3 fires on cars on the streets in the last 10 years because there was no heat shield, and I kid you not..One of them had 2 children and a silly mother who did'nt want to get them out of the car untill I screamed at her that her car was on fire..Get It Fixed soon as possible..

Non_FireMan WheelBrokerAng

 

If you wanna fix it yourself, use metal hose clamps instead of plastic wire ties. That way it ties around the converter itself & holds better as the exhaust system moves around.