Post by
importnewby »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/importnewby-u301046.html
Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:29 pm
I joined this forum for this Thread. Thank you. I had a super minor rattle that would come and go so i did not think much of it, until 2 days ago... I was taking a drive like any other day, turning onto a main Rd. I accelerated through the corner to merge in when catastrophe struck, or so I thought. "Rattle" doesn't begin to describe this noise (i may be sensitive to car noises) I thought something horrific happened, I mean this sounded worse then when I blew a connecting rod and drove home with 3 working cylinders for 30 minutes in a Canadian Cold snap (-35c). I pulled over and took a look and to my delight it was the Exhaust heat guard the came loose, so I drove home in excruciatingly loud fashion, every pedestrian took a look at the car assumed to be pooched and its meagre and embarrassed driver. So that's the story of how...
Once i got it home I let it, and myself cooldown. I went into research mode and came across this as well as a few other threads. to be clear this was not the "rattle" from SB 2008-2014 Rogue Exhaust center Tube Heat Shield Rattle. This was the full Exhaust heat shield that came loose and was contacting the Drivetrain and thus resulting in the terrible noises. In my research i saw a pretty equal mix of Rip it out, take it to a shop ($300+) or get it fixed via warranty. Since warranty was not an option for me at this point i was leaning on the rip it out side, WTF does it actually do anyways? But from what i read here it is there for a reason so i decided to at least try. Then came the how. I didnt like the idea of pop rivets because of the pre-drilling and the minimal contact surface since i dont want to do this again in 2 or 3 years. The 3 nuts holding it on were difficult to get to, and i thought they looked pretty rusted, so i went with a self tapping 3/4 inch (length) screw with a large washer to increase the surface area of the connection to hopefully avoid this from happening again in the future. This could not have been easier, i was surprised at how well the self tapping screws worked, if you're not very adept with a drill you may want to look for HEX headed screws to minimize slipping/stripping(just be careful where you drill), I went as close to possible to where it was originally secured to make sure i did not drill into anything that could result in damage. So for about 50 cents worth of washers and some self tapping screws i dont even remember buying i expect this fix to last much longer the Nissan's original design.
quick edit - if you do this check to see if the new position of the shield (it changed very minimally) causes any contact to either the exhaust or the drivetrain and bend shield accordingly otherwise you will be back under your car in minutes.
Thanks!