Cat conv heat shield
 

So when I brought my 02 in to the muffler shop with what I thought was a bad CC, I got some welcome news. The upper heat shield was rusted and had broke loose on one side causing the rattle. So they took it all the way off, charged me zilch, and off I went. I still have the lower shield on. My question is how necessary is that upper shield, at least from a safety point of view? The car rarely sees any trips longer than 45 minutes or so. Can I safely run without it?

People have removed the entire heat shield before and haven't reported problems. If you would remove the lower one, don't park the car on grass as it can cause a fire.

Honda engineers add items for a reason and it is likely safety. I'm guessing it protects the floorboard from heat. When my heat shield started rattling due to rusting and making noise, I replaced it with a new one. It was pretty inexpensive and not too bad to replace.

Where did you get a replacement shield? I thought they came with the catalytic converters. I removed my bottom shield.

If you have the original catalytic converter, then the dealership sells them. You can check out the online places like Hondapartsnow.com, majestic honda, hondapartsdeals.com. They sell OEM parts for a discount, but the shipping can add to the cost.

Thanks $40 a little pricey I may try a junkyard first although they probably would want to sell the whole thing. Id like to leave it off, but Im afraid next year when I have my yearly vehicle safety inspection they will have a change of heart and say I need it.

I kick myself for throwing out the old one I could have rebolted it but at the time I just ripped it off and didnt worry about it. I used to live somewhere, where they didnt have inspections.

Most of the time when they do inspection of the car, they will not crawl under the car to check if you have a shield for the cat or not. And in my state, the junkyard cannot sell exhaust parts especially the cat, but you might just get the shield if they're not rusted out.

Depends on the state in Maine, the car goes up on a hoist, heat shields are listed in the manual but its really up to the mechanic as the manual is so long they can fail any car if they looked hard enough even new ones.

When mine rusted off, I put it back on with a couple hose clamps.