Will removing the heat shield that's wrapped around the cat cause any problems? I had to open it in half to bolt up my new exhaust and now it rattles like crazy all the time. Test pipes don't have any shields around them so I wouldn't think it would cause problems but does the cat typically get hotter than a test pipe? I suppose I could also put a large clamp around the shield and tighten it down so it wont rattle. In case it still does, removing the shield would be my only option.. or a test pipe but don't want that just yet.. Car has only 8k miles.

 

You can just remove the heat shield it will be fine. One thing though is that the heat shield itself is a bit of a pain to remove you may be better getting out a hammer and try bending it whereever it is rubbing. Thats what i did when i first got my exhaust b4 i got my high flow cat. And it seemed to work fine.

 

I removed mine back in the day. You'll be fine.

 

Yeah I don't see a real big issue with removing it. cats might run slightly warmer but shouldn't affect anything. Im running a test pipe so removing it I would listen to hobbastnk

 

Mines gone too.