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Lost a heat shield-need a little help

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 6:14 pm
by outoforder
Hello all-original owner of an o5 pathfinder here. Teenage daughter is now driving it-comes home tonight “a part fell off the bottom of the car”. Fortunately she was able to retrieve the part and it appears undamaged. I have had the exhaust system replaced maybe 3-5 years ago due to rust issues. Is this going to be difficult for me to replace? Looks like there are 3 attachment point-does that mean 3 bolts have totally rusted away? I’m asking all of this tonight before I go out tomorrow and take a look underneath. All help is appreciated..
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Re: Lost a heat shield-need a little help

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 6:58 pm
by VStar650CL
Not difficult, but you'll need some fender washers. Note the ring of crud around the holes. The 6mm screws will still be on the bottom of the car. The aluminum shield rusted galvanically around the steel screws until there was no metal left and it fell off. I keep 1/4" x 1" fender washers around for just that purpose. Putting some high-temp sealer between the washers and shield will help prevent a recurrence.

Re: Lost a heat shield-need a little help

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 8:41 pm
by TooMuchControl
great tip on the high temp sealer! Thank you.

Re: Lost a heat shield-need a little help

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2023 3:50 am
by outoforder
Thanks!

Re: Lost a heat shield-need a little help

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 5:07 am
by outoforder
Ok -easy enough to find where the shield is supposed to go-unfortunately the studs have deteriorated so badly they snapped off very quickly. I need some type of rivet solution to attach the shield back on. Those plastic trim pop rivets would be ideal but I’m sure they would quickly melt. There is no room to use the “rivet gun” -need something small.

Re: Lost a heat shield-need a little help

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:58 am
by VStar650CL
That's a complete PITA, nobody makes high-temperature push clips. I've run into that four times that I can recall. In one instance the customer wanted it "fixed right" and we lifted the carpet to drill and install riv nuts. In another the customer said "f__k it" and left the shield off. In the remaining two we cleaned the area around the sheared studs and glued the shield in place with Gray Death (world's nastiest engine sealer, Nissan's version of Permatex Ultra Gray). To my knowledge those last two are still on the road and never had further problems.