Part Identification (Heat Shield)

#9 goes above the catalytic converter. The part in your picture looks to me like #10, the center shield.

 

That's an amazing looking hole in the shield. Is that from an impact, or is that where there should be a bolt and it's rusted off? My shield was rattling once as well--for some reason it had pulled through a few of the bolts and was just hanging. I put a few steel washers under the bolts to expand their grip, which quickly resolved the problem.

 

I was looking at mine just now. That does seem to be a mount point that has been damaged. Given the size of the hole I would make my own washer from any similar gauge sheet metal, preferably not something that would rust. Cut a 2.5 inch diameter circle of the washer material, make a center bolt hole, take it to your yard where there is hard clay soil and lay it on the smooth ground, and place a broad rounded hammer head in its center. Then hit that hammer with a maul of some sort (wooden club, or another hammer) to dish the washer not quite as much as the shield is at the mounting point. This is so it grips the shield at the edges of the washer, and you can fully tighten the bolt without deforming the shield. The above sounds crazy, perhaps, but dropping and replacing the shield is likely more time consuming--it wasnt meant to be removed without lowering the exhaust a little first (I guess).

 

The bottom of 3 soft drink cans cut off, stacked up for strength, would also work.

 

I used slightly heavier gauge aluminum scrap metal cut to 2" length. Drilled a hole in the center and bent all sharp corners so they would not cut the shield. It fixed the rattling.