Excessive heat shiled rattling - R50 2004 Pathfinder exhaust

[K03sport]

I tried searching by I didn't really find the info I was looking for.

I'm sure this topic has been discussed before, but does anyone or has anyone experienced the excessive heat shield rattling on an R50 Pathfinder or QX4?

I will take pictures of the possibly offending pieces later, but I believe they are the heat shields in or around the cat-conv, just forward of the front foot wells. Not what side it is coming from, but it sounds like both sides.

What have you done to remedy this issue besides removing the shield. Removing the heat shield is not an option. If it was, I wouldn't be writing this post.

I've thought about adding some Dynamat (r) type material with the foil backing to the edges to change the resonate freq of the shield or maybe some lead tape. Another idea is to connect the sided of the shield with some bailing wire but that would require drilling some holes in the flat part of the shield and the wire could rust quickly and fatigue due to heat.

Ideas and other suggestions welcome.

[miamiheat3332]

I had this noise about 3k miles ago, its most likely the heatshield right after the drivers side cat converter on that bend, buy 2 pipe clamps and clamp it down at both sides, its most likely rusted thru at one point and it will go away.

[Buzzman]

I'm sure this topic has been discussed before, but does anyone or has anyone experienced the excessive heat shield rattling on an R50 Pathfinder or QX4?


Removing the heat shield is not an option. If it was, I wouldn't be writing this post.

OK, so why is removing them not an option?
Rattling heat shields are a common problem on these things. They rust, pure and simple.
Mine rattled for a while, and eventually, two sections just fell off.
I haven't bothered replacing them, and there have been no after effects.
Even the dealership said not to bother.
I guess if you don't want to run without them, then you either tighten them up, or replace them.
Personally, I wouldn't bother.

[miamiheat3332]

yeah mine ended up falling off after pulling out of my garage one day, so i just got the 2 hose clamp things, and no rattle.

[GRNMACHINE]

Have the Rattle, Plan on crawling underneath to cut, clamp, or remove this week or next. Been there for months.

[cs_wrc]

OK, so why is removing them not an option?
Rattling heat shields are a common problem on these things. They rust, pure and simple.
Mine rattled for a while, and eventually, two sections just fell off.
I haven't bothered replacing them, and there have been no after effects.
Even the dealership said not to bother.
I guess if you don't want to run without them, then you either tighten them up, or replace them.
Personally, I wouldn't bother.

Is your Pathfinder 2wd or 4x4? IIRC on my qx4 4x4 the exhaust passes within a couple inches of the transfer case as it comes down the driver side of the vehicle. Could this cause issues with the fluid in the transfer case overheating? Would using header wrap on the sections of exhaust that pass by heat sensitive items give those items some protection?

[K03sport]

Is your Pathfinder 2wd or 4x4? IIRC on my qx4 4x4 the exhaust passes within a couple inches of the transfer case as it comes down the driver side of the vehicle. Could this cause issues with the fluid in the transfer case overheating? Would using header wrap on the sections of exhaust that pass by heat sensitive items give those items some protection?

My PF is 4WD. I'm sure the effects of removing the heat shield wouldn't be noticed right away, but why would the engineers at Nissan put the heat shield there in the first place if it wasn't meant to protect something.

I would like to preserve the engineers' intent by keeping the heat shield in place. If I can't solve the rattle by keeping it in place, then I will resort to removing the heat shield and move on.

Fall is upon us here in the mediocre state of OH, so time will be limited to finding a solution comfortably.

I like the heat wrap idea. I'm guessing you remove the shield and then wrap the exhaust where the shield used to be. Is that the idea?

[DAiNiUS]

Is your Pathfinder 2wd or 4x4? IIRC on my qx4 4x4 the exhaust passes within a couple inches of the transfer case as it comes down the driver side of the vehicle. Could this cause issues with the fluid in the transfer case overheating? Would using header wrap on the sections of exhaust that pass by heat sensitive items give those items some protection?

My PF is 4WD. I'm sure the effects of removing the heat shield wouldn't be noticed right away, but why would the engineers at Nissan put the heat shield there in the first place if it wasn't meant to protect something.

I would like to preserve the engineers' intent by keeping the heat shield in place. If I can't solve the rattle by keeping it in place, then I will resort to removing the heat shield and move on.

Fall is upon us here in the mediocre state of OH, so time will be limited to finding a solution comfortably.

I like the heat wrap idea. I'm guessing you remove the shield and then wrap the exhaust where the shield used to be. Is that the idea?

I can't believe that this is my first post but I was told that the heat shield is there so that stuff would not catch fire from the hot exhaust under the car. So let's say if you park on some (dry?) grass it might catch fire but the heat shield would prevent that. That's the explanation that I was given, but I'm not sure if it's true or not. Yesterday I actually noticed some rattling from under the car, but it seems to be some sort of bracket that is holding a piece of the exhaust.

[Buzzman]

The heat shields are mostly above the exhaust, to protect the underside of the truck.
The lower half of the exhaust system is exposed, so anything that comes into contact with it (grass, etc.) is not protected.
Welcome to NICO by the way. Stick around.

[cs_wrc]

Is your Pathfinder 2wd or 4x4? IIRC on my qx4 4x4 the exhaust passes within a couple inches of the transfer case as it comes down the driver side of the vehicle. Could this cause issues with the fluid in the transfer case overheating? Would using header wrap on the sections of exhaust that pass by heat sensitive items give those items some protection?

My PF is 4WD. I'm sure the effects of removing the heat shield wouldn't be noticed right away, but why would the engineers at Nissan put the heat shield there in the first place if it wasn't meant to protect something.

I would like to preserve the engineers' intent by keeping the heat shield in place. If I can't solve the rattle by keeping it in place, then I will resort to removing the heat shield and move on.

Fall is upon us here in the mediocre state of OH, so time will be limited to finding a solution comfortably.

I like the heat wrap idea. I'm guessing you remove the shield and then wrap the exhaust where the shield used to be. Is that the idea?

Yes, but I'm most likely gonna wrap only where it gets close to other items. I found a shorter roll of wrap then what they use to do full headers.

http://www.autopartsdealer.com/dei_shor ... =APD397595

[ARKQX33V6]

Heat shields deflect and absorb heat so surrounding area does not absorb the heat. Excess heat from an exhaust pipe is cooled by the shield because of a greater mass, but the shield is there by design. And auto builders are cheap, nothing extra. Never wrap an exhaust pipe, heat build up will go very high. The heat shield has many holes and bends built in to take on heat and cool itself, whereas the exhaust is meant to transfer the heat and hot gases through the converter, through the mufflers and resonator where it will cool and out the rear

Too high or too cool an exhaust will affect the conversion taking place via platinum in the converter.

Stop the rattle by securing the shield with SS clips, Tridon or some cheap Chinese knockoffs, you're just securing metal to metal and not containing a liquid under pressure so the knockoff will do.J

The annoying rattle tells you the shield is lose, look around that area, transmission fluid has a definite temperature range and hot exhaust will exceed the range and hot transmission oil loses lubricity and that will be a detriment to the cooling and lubrication of the transfer gears which are unlike a transmission with smooth bevel cut gears. Ever hear the gears jam in when you go from 2 to 4 wheel drive. They need all the help they can get.

[GRNMACHINE]

Solved my rattle yesterday in 2 minutes. The shields are in seperate pieces: top and lower. They are held with what appears to be clamps and bolts. The lower part of the shield drivers side rusted out and was no longer held by the bolt. I grabbed it to see how loose it was and then I pulled on it and it broke off. Rattle is now gone. Re-attatching it was really not feasible given the crumbling rusty condition it was in.

Re: setting grass on fire... I guess its possible in a very dry area with puddles of charcoal lighter on it...

[Jvandyke13]

Anyone have a picture of the the clamp solution of the underneath or a pathfinder?

[GRNMACHINE]

Update--still have some rattling. Looked underneath again, there are LOTS of heatshields. Pulled 2 more off on drivers side. They practically fell off, no tools needed. They are really rusted in places but I am thinking of putting them back on since the rattle is still there. Will check the rest over the wkend. And as Jvandyke requested, anyone have pics of clamp solution? OR what clamps used? size etc

[Bluemill]

At 103,000 miles mine are now finally all gone. They all started falling off almost simultaneously- at about 100,000 miles. I'm running around with no foolish high metallic buzzing rattles, well worth the 6 trips underneath the car to remove the dangling remnants of unnecessary parts.

[wiseguy]

i've been driving 2 years without them and no issues even when redlining from light to light lol.. i dont think they do much especially since we have belt driven fans that always give an airflow in the engine bay

[GoldenR50]

i had a couple of clamps holding what was left of them on my 00 LE pathy. they were basically rusted out. while fixing my muffler today (midpipe rusted and broke off at the neck), my mechanic just took off the clamps and they just fell off and he clipped the rest of them...it's so quiet now!

[Sbowen]

Took mine off last month and no rattle. I've also had no issues loving it!!!!

[kerrton]

Same metallic rattling issue with my 08 Rogue when hitting bumps around town, mine aren't rusted and are secured properly but the almuminum is such flimsy thin gauge that it has no rigidity, you can bend it with your fingers, so it just flexes and rattles around on the outer edges where it's not secured. I'm getting really close to ripping that cheap crap off, since it's aluminium it won't rust off so I'll have to actually removed the anchors.

[GRNMACHINE]

Still pulling the shields off, they are beyond junk now. Every other month a rattle will reappear and it is another shield hanging by a thread of rust....

[vq35]

My heat shileds started giving trouble about 2yrs ago - from the bottom (solution ripped them off = no more rattle) and now it has found its way upwards towards the manifold (solution .... not yet as I cannot see up there and I have to resort to slowly ripping one off at a time until they are all gone) Methinks they have been engineered to make money - although I was contemplating going to a muffler shop and having everything welded in place but it just seems like a ticking bomb.

[fueler]

its kind of odd that you refuse to remove heatshields (you scared of a fire or something?) but you're willing to try putting dynamat on them - lol.

Rattles of this nature can usually be solved by tightening bolts. All you have to do is pinpoint the source and fix it.

[chicoson]

mine were ratteling too. when i was in a muffler shop getting a oil change i told them to yank those mother effers off and guess what no issues. every car i own has no heat sheilds. they are mainly there to keep the heat from rising and making the cabin hotter. the point about the transfer case getting hot is a great point. i can understand that but i have yet to have a issue. if your worried about that just have your fluid changed every other year and have lucas additive put in with it or use reline oil. they dramaticly reduce oil temps. im in micigan and use my QX4 and 4x4 alot in the winter too. i say just yank them off. there are alot of them too. i also agree they are there to make money as well haha. most people who buy a QX4 have money so they hear a rattle and take it in to the dealer. dealer says you need to replace the heat shield and boom the money makers hand over the visa card haha.

[GRNMACHINE]

Not a chance of tightening any bolt on any of my heat shields. They have all merged into one big piece of rust. There is a large piece of steel bracketry with rubber that holds the shields etc somewhere near the transfer case I believe. That was causing alot of rattling-I removed that also. And gotta agree with Fueler, Dynamat seems overkill/extreme.

[GRNMACHINE]

Not a chance of tightening any bolt on any of my heat shields. They have all merged into one big piece of rust. There is a large piece of steel bracketry with rubber that holds the shields etc somewhere near the transfer case I believe. That was causing alot of rattling-I removed that also. And gotta agree with Fueler, Dynamat seems overkill/extreme.

Rattling became worse than ever. There was one more length of shielding that became loose, removed it. Nice and quiet again.