Exhaust Heat Shield Repair - 2010 Base 140k

[Jojomerk]

Today I heard a faint sympathetic rattle/rumble and it turned out that one of the exhaust heat shield nuts had broken through the thin aluminum shield. I went to Home Depot and bought 1/4x1-1/4 fender washers. I sprayed the nut bolt assemblies with WD40 and then unfastened the nuts and put the fender washers between the nuts and the shield. I did the work in the HD parking lot, which took about 10 minutes. No more rattle & hum!

[tpollauf]

Nice work . Both heat shields (one above the cat, and one above the muffler) technically are all part of the exhaust system, so I'll assume you were referring to the rear one above the muffler. It's the easiest one to get to AND the first one to usually go on these 2nd gen Vibes. My son lost his rear heat shield some three years ago or so as the rivets/bolts rotted out. Not a real big deal here in the Midwest. If we were Texas or Florida I'd probably would have replaced it. He's been fine since then.

[Jojomerk]

It was the rear heat shield over the muffler; see pics.

2010 Vibe Rear Heat Shield over muffler Photo

20230605 Pontiac Vibe 2010 Heat Shield Repair.jpg (138.76 KiB) Viewed 138 times

2010 Vibe Photo

20230605 Pontiac Vibe 2010 White Lightning.jpg (177.71 KiB) Viewed 138 times