My car has a stock exhaust fitted
As well as the "foil" heatshield there is a steel heatshield over each muffler

Every single bolt which holds the heatshield to the exhaust (six each side) has rusted off and now the damn thing rattles like mad

Am I ok to remove the steel heatshield completely as the foil shield will remain in place, or does it need to stay fitted too?

I'm guessing it'd be ok to remove as only some if the performance exhausts have a shield like this in place. It seems most do not?

 

Couldn't you take the heat shield screws out and fit with larger washers and refit?

Jim

 

I've had an aftermarket exhaust a few months now, the heatshields still attached to the body. No issues I can see, but I wonder if the more restrictive standard system gets hotter?

 

These things ? I would def keep them.

 

No, not those
the heatshields I'm talking about go over the exhaust muffler

There are six fixing points per shield but I can only get to three of them meaning it'll still rattle

The only way I can see to get to the other fixing brackets is to remove the exhaust but the straps and nuts holding the exhaust in place are so badly corroded it's going to be a nightmare to remove it

Because of this I was planning on leaving the exhaust in place and not removing it until I replace it and fit new turbos

So is it safe to remove the shields to stop the rattling for now?
Like I said, I've only seen a few aftermarket exhausts with similar shields in place

 

You mean these shields, no? Drill & use self tappers

 

Yep, they're the fellas

I can get to the three fixings at the tailpipe side but can't get to the one onthe corner or the two on top....not without removing the exhaust anyway

If I do have to remove the exhaust what's the best way to remove the four nuts securing the cats to the turbine housing?
The nuts are badly corroded to the point where they're rounded in shape

I'm guessing a few days of WD40 followed by a lot of heat might be the only way, and even then I can't see them budging without some bad language

 

Liquid Wrench or some other penetrating lube, not WD-40. Soak it over and over for a few days. If it's possible to get one in there they also make devices for cracking nuts off of studs but I'm betting it's too tight. Make sure you use the correct sized socket too or the issue will get worse. Hopefully folks can chime in with other proven methods...

 

Do yourself a huge favor and just go buy 8 new studs and nuts for the turbo and fix them. It sounds like you need them anyway. It will be easier the next time you need to do it. You can plan on busting them off when you finally do remove them and you will have the replacements on hand.

 

Ant 8u, I had the same exact problem. The bolts actually screw into a clip if you look at the parts catalog. So I bought the bolts and clips and figured it would be a pretty straight forward job to replace them. Well the problem was that the clips attached to a small metal plate that is welded to the exhaust, and guess what? The welds were broken at 4 locations. Also, the bolts were so rusted and seized that no amount of PB blaster would help. Busted a few drills trying to get them out, easy-outs didn't work either. It was quite the nightmare, I actually had to dremel the bolts off. So the only way to get the steel heatshield back on the exhaust would require me to remove the exhaust and send it to a welder to weld the little backing plates on. Its a very crappy design as those backing plates are very thin and the welds didn't look that good either. I am running without the steel heatshield now and there are no issues. The "foil" heatshield does its job. Bumper doesn't even get warm after consecutive full boost blasts down the highway. Added bonus: no more rattles, and I dropped about 5 pounds .

 

In my case no. Without the little metal backing plate there is nothing for the clip to attach to, in turn nothing for the bolt to screw into. My only option would have been to weld the plates back on or drill directly into the exhaust, which I had no intention of doing.