Catalytic converter heat shield
 

I noticed a rattling sound coming from my car this morning. I look underneath the car and what appears to be a heat shield for the catalytic converter is falling off. It is still attached on the left and hanging on the right. Looks like this has happened to a few others here but no answers what to do. It doesn’t look like it is an individual part at onlinemazdaparts.com. It is part of the catalytic converter. And I am not replacing the cat.

I could either rip the thing off the rest of the way or attempt to fix it. Has anyone taken this shield off and did it cause any problems? I guess it might be there to keep extra heat from the gas lines, brake lines or transmission.

post a pic plz.

I had this happen on my RP High Flow Cat and a quick weld job fixed the issue.
I'd like to see what your OEM is doing that way we can figure out what to do.

talked to a mechanic friend. He said that the car will run fine without the thing. The only reason it is there is to prevent dead grass from starting on fire. He said that if I wanted to fix the thing to get a few long hose clamps and connect them to wrap around the thing.

Thoughts?

the heat shield isn't necessary, that I agree with.
why would you warp hose clamps? That sounds pretty micky mouse to me. If it's anything like the heat shield on my RP, a quick spot weld would do the trick and would last a lot longer.
Again, it's been forever since I've looked at my OEM cat so I can't make a solid recommendation until I see exactly what yours has done.

Junk it. You'll never notice it's gone other than the .02 lbs of weight savings.

The heat shield fell off and was dragging, only held by the O2 sensor.

I bought some wire and rigged it up there. Held in place but still rattles. I figure that I'll take it to a muffler shop and get the thing welded back in place.

-The weld on my heat shield rusted away and the heat shield was dragging by the O2 sensor cable.
-I called the dealer and said I wanted a new catalytic converter under warranty (the car was out of warranty, but the cat warranty is much longer).
-Service manager said no. Just cut the heat shield away.
-Called Mazda Canada, spoke to someone who didn't even know what a cat was (he said he didn't have to know about cars to do his job). After some back and forth he said that the heat shield was replaceable separately.
-I said BS but would call the dealer to verify.
-Of course the dealer said not so.
-Called Mazda back and this time talked to someone who was much more car savy. He asked me why not just cut it away. I said because it's there to prevent fires. Say I drive into my garage, over oily rags. Fire. Car, house burns down, maybe someone gets killed.
-He said OK, go get a new cat.
-Called the service manager back, and he initially says BS but does verify it. New cat installed a few days later.

the heat shield is a separate part and you can replace just the heat shield itself.

but , whatever works for u, at least u got a new cat for free.

I would like to see view of that part. How do you attach it?

are you talking about the one on Top of the CAT? or ?

I need to know which piece u're talking about.

cuz there is like 3 of them (as far as I remember)

At the bottom. It wraps up the side and has a hole in it for the O2 sensor.

Cat Shield
 

My cat shield just fell off and the O2 sensor holding it on. I want to know who the idiot engineer was to have the O2 sensor go through a hole instead of just a space so if the thing rusted off it would just fall away not try to tear the O2 sensor wire with it. I love my Mazdas but that is just bad engineering.

MrJumpa if it would just fall off then you would be here asking what idiot engineer designed it so it could just fall off and maybe mangle your tires at speed.

Do the cats on series 1 cars not have that little o2 sensor shield that you remove with 2 bolts? those two bolts also hold the bottom of the heat shield in place on the cat.

Exhaust Heatshield hangin off
 

Hi,
I heard a noise under the car today, and found the heat shield hanging off from the cat.
Took it to a friends garage and he removed the heat shield for me and said that i should have no more problems.
But I noticed my leg was getting warm just below the gear stick area in the car. So I am thinking, do I need a replacement heat shield to prevent this , or is it ok to continue using??

Any help gratefully accepted.

stock cat runs hot, it makes heat shield rust much faster, take the old piece back see how bad the rust were, if it's not bad, weld it back on at some muffler shop.

u need to make a new friend

ford had a recall for the cat heat shield on the trucks, and the fix was a big hose clamp...

you just replied a reply from 3 yrs ago :rollingla

it's a little too late, don't ya think ? :lol:

Thanks for searching though....

you bumped it!

Hi, my cat heat shield has been removed due to having rusted off and is not possible to refit it.
So i purchased a new cat and had it fitted, but I realised it had no heatshield fitted to it after the fitting.
My problem is that after the original heatshield disintergrated I was getting heat coming into the cabin of the car and causing rather hot seat runners and my leg warming up.
How can it be that the new cats are not supplied with the heat shield which was on the original.
Surely the heat shield was designed to be on the vehicle to serve a purpose. With the new cat I am still having the problem of heat in cabin.
If it is not possible to buy a heat shield as a one off part what is the alternative.
Any help greatly appreciated..