Piece fell off the bottom of my RX8...
 

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4354/undercar1.jpg

(View Full Size)

Pulling into my parking spot today i heard a scraping noise and looked beneath to find the piece/covering highlighted in yellow above virtually hanging completely off of my 2004 RX8. I pulled it off without much effort at all only to find it pretty rusted and decomposed...It looks like a casing, possibly some kind of heat shield?

Could anyone provide any input as to this piece's function or what it is? Am i risking anything by driving it for a week before i bring it into a shop?

Thanks!

It's the cat heatshield, assuming the cat itself isn't hanging off (which I assume it isn't, or you would be posting about the brain bleeding noise of an uncorked rotary).

It's hard to say how important it is. On one hand, our cat temps DO get to nearly 2,000 degrees, but it's also the side away from the car / toward the ground?

On some cars the bottom heat shield and top heat shield bolt together. They use their snugness with each other to remain in place. It may be possible that if the bottom is gone, the top wont be too far behind it.

Ah yep, that seems to be it. Now that i have a starting point i checked other threads and it seems to be mainly used to prevent fires from igniting due to tall grass, etc. Nothing too terribly necessary in the short term at least....

Thanks for your help!

You will feel an increase in cabin heat and even heat coming in from the exterior with the windows down. If that piece is still salvageable, you can use a metal wire strap or a plumbing clamp to put it back into place.

I always just use a metal coat hanger to reattach them.