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What is the

It should be the heat sheild for the cataltic converter. They run red hot or pretty close so it's there to protect grass and like that from catching fire if you drive over it. Also to protect the car itself if it's real close to the underside I imagine too.
If it's still OK they should probably be able to just tack weld it back in place.

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I think you'll be fine as long as your not planning on driving over any grasslands or spraying gasoline under the car. Just get it done soon before it falls off like you said
Hopefully they don't try to sell you a new converter, that can get very expensive although I believe they are warranted for 50k, it might be up to 100k now because it's a emissions part.

This happens to be

Loose heat shields are a fairly common problem, since the heat tends to accelerate rusting. As Dartman said, if you keep the car on asphalt you don't really need it. Get it fixed if it is cheap, or consider just taking it off altogether and not replacing it if they charge too much. Another alternative is to get a stainless steel hose clamp to hold it on. I've done that a couple of times and never had a problem.

cfitz

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You're welcome.

You can do a lot of fixes with hose clamps, u-bolts, etc. And they are perfectly fine. The only thing you need to be careful about is that you don't have an actual hole in the exhaust system under the car. It probably isn't so much a problem these days with better build quality, but you don't want carbon monoxide seeping into the passenger compartment from a hole in the exhaust system underneath.

Fortunately, holes are usually easy to detect. You hear them! Mufflers really do a great job, and any exhaust leaking out before the muffler makes itself conspicuously known. And once you have narrowed down the general location from the sound, you can run your hand along the system (being careful not to actually touch it and burn yourself) until you feel it - it will be puffing out with a pretty good force.

VEFF wrote:I don't think the owner even realized it

I'm sure he noticed it (unless he was deaf). He probably just didn't care or didn't know what to do about so just drove on.

cfitz

Thanks!
No holes in the exhaust; the car is as silent as can be.

The problem has been fixed.

Good deal. Did you do it yourself or did the garage offer to do it for a reasonable price?

cfitz

I'm glad to hear that its fixed! How much did it cost?

Thanks!

VEFF wrote:Thanks!

As to cost: take a wild guess?
The is a clue!

Oh, I "fixed" it myself...

That's the way to do it!

cfitz

VEFF wrote:What is the

VEFF wrote:..

VEFF wrote:..

VEFF wrote:..

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What happened to this thread???

I think VEFF was talking about how to upgrade a catalytic converter so it can burn -R discs, and Ian had to censor VEFF's instructions...

Of course, it actually isn't very hard to make a catalytic converter burn -R, +R, CD-R, whatever - just drive the car around for ten miles or so, then place the disc to be burned on top of the converter. The converter will be plenty hot enough to burn just about anything at that point...

cfitz

Difficult to click.

Isn't it better to make it clickable wherever you click inside the subject lines?