What's this hanging from my car?

pledgeX

I was out driving today and heard a scraping sound as I went over a speed bump. I got home and had a look underneath and saw some kind of metal sheet hanging down. Any ideas what this is? How safe is it to drive? I imagine it's something that should be repaired and not just cut off on the cheap?! The car is a 2000 ford fiesta.

Quentin

Looks a heat shield meant to be between the exhaust and the car's floor.

arcon5

Nothing really to worry about - will just be a couple of screws have come loose and fell out.

StrongWork

Exhaust heat shield. Nothing hugely concerning but may rattle at certain revs.

Weird_Nev

Heat shield as said.

It looks like it's broken off it's mount point on the left there, it should sit flush with the car floor. I bet if you lift it up into place you'll see where it should fit. I think it should be affixed at that rusty screw point you can see in the first photo.

Get it sorted, that extra weight on the exhaust could break that too, plus it'll rattle and anooy you, and if it falls out then you have no heat shield. Free under floor car heating, I suppose....

molerat

To put it back on get a tube of TigerSeal and some largish washers. Tigerseal on the stud on the car floor, push shield back up, more Tigerseal on the stud and push the washer over it. Job done.

alleycat`

heatshield.
Had to refit one of the neighbours recently.
I assume that she took her car rallying judging by the state of the underneath

shaun_from_Africa

alleycat` wrote: »

I assume that she took her car rallying judging by the state of the underneath

Either that or they spent a few days driving around Surrey and weren't warned about the potholes!

arcon5

The heat shield is very light, very highly unlikely to damage the exhaust!!!

bigjl

Yup. Heatshiled.

They are poorly fixed on in my experience on modern Fords.

Either remove or reattach with some penny washers to repair where the heatshield has split.

I would rather fix it as it is there for a reason.

Rodney_Trotter

bigjl wrote: »

Yup. Heatshiled.

They are poorly fixed on in my experience on modern Fords.

Either remove or reattach with some penny washers to repair where the heatshield has split.

I would rather fix it as it is there for a reason.

Thanks for that.

Not like it wasn't pointed out six hours ago