A Rattling, Then Something Fell Off

[Grawflemaul]

Hi all,

To my shame, I'm rather ignorant of the workings of my Yaris. So when I noticed a rattling in the back of the car last night, I immediately assumed it was related to that pothole I'd hit earlier. I pulled over and looked as best as I could, but I couldn't see anything obviously falling off, and since the rattling didn't seem to affect the handling of the car I decided to just get where I was going.

Later, something appeared to fall off the bottom of my car, see picture. Again, it didn't seem to have impacted the handling of driving of the car, and by this point the rattling had stopped, so I just decided to get home and deal with it in the morning. This morning, I still can't see any obvious places for this sheet of metal to have come from.

So I was hoping some of you more knowledgeable chaps might be able to help me out. What's fallen off my Yaris? Is this something I really need to get fixed?

[Madasafish]

Exhaust heatshield..

You need to replace before hot weather (so lots of time) or you could set fire to car...

Could be the one above the catalysts - under the gearlever... so if so you MUST fix it or real fire risk... and fix it asap.

Any competent garage should be able to use the old one...even I could do it in under 20 mins..

[Grawflemaul]

Exhaust heatshield..

You need to replace before hot weather (so lots of time) or you could set fire to car...

Could be the one above the catalysts - under the gearlever... so if so you MUST fix it or real fire risk... and fix it asap.

Any competent garage should be able to use the old one...even I could do it in under 20 mins..

That's both somewhat reassuring and terrifying. Thanks man, I'll get to a garage and get it fixed.

[alfiejts]

I think that's a part off the Flux Capacitor.....

[Madasafish]

I think that's a part off the Flux Capacitor.....

for the warp generator which...

[Cyker]

generates an inverse tachyon field in order to...

[Hartside]

supply the dylithium crystals which power the....

[Madasafish]

discombobulator which provides the starting up power to....

[sisaven]

discombobulator which provides the starting up power to....

The influx Capacitor which is the main left hand side attachment- to the 130GB pixel Camera that you probably used to take the Photograph of the Disconnected Heat-shield of the first Part. or is it the -

[sisaven]

discombobulator which provides the starting up power to....

The influx Capacitor which is the main left hand side attachment- to the 130GB pixel Camera that you probably used to take the Photograph of the Disconnected Heat-shield of the first Part. or is it the -

Petrol Tank to Exhaust Pipe/Rear Box, Heat Shield, (you will probably require a couple of large "Washers" to cover the "enlarged" holes, to re-Attach the shield)

[PumpkinSteve]

Exhaust heatshield..

You need to replace before hot weather (so lots of time) or you could set fire to car...

Could be the one above the catalysts - under the gearlever... so if so you MUST fix it or real fire risk... and fix it asap.

Any competent garage should be able to use the old one...even I could do it in under 20 mins..

I agree with it being the heatshield, I had problems with mine coming loose and Toyota could never seem to fix it. Every time they gave me the excuse "it's loose when cold but it expands when hot which makes it tight again".

[Chris81]

Can't say I'd worry about re-attaching it. They use to fall of the K11 Micra all the time (happenned to a couple of friends cars) as they rust over time. They never re-attached them and equally never had any problems. Got through subsequent MOTs no trouble.

[alfiejts]

Its nothing to do with the MOT - a heatshield stops hot parts of the car potentially damaging others - such as plastic fuel pipes nearby...

Just cos its not illegal to run without one doesn't mean its not daft....

If the manufacturer thinks its really worth spending extra money when building the car to put this extra piece on, then it must think there's a risk of damage that is worth avoiding....

But if you know better than the engineer who designed the car and thought the protection was important, then that's fine....

[Raeman]

I can see both sides to this one...I can understand why it's there in the first place and i can understand why people leave them off when they give trouble.

I had one removed from my mk3 Golf years ago, the thing just kept coming loose and it got very irritating listening to it rattle. Everytime it went back to the dealers, it would come loose again a few months after.

In my defence though, the mechs never said it was absolutely neccesary to keep it on. Had they said that, i would have kept it at, least for peice of mind

Also had one rattle on my Accord few yrs ago but Honda fixed it back properly at service time for free.

Think hot days, long dry grass, catalytic convertors that get hotter than the sun ect ect...

[Jamesbelfast]

If you ever seen a CAT or exhaust when there is unburnt fuel being dumped into the exhaust you would definitely want all your heat shields in place - the darned things will actually glow red hot.

Yep!! - manufacturers fit them for a reason buy why oh why can't mechanics repair the darned things.:)

[Trevorjf]

Hi 

had a rattle start near the front end of my 2011 Yaris when i would go over larger bumps or manholes. It was a metalic sound thought it was the exhaust system. Mechanic looked at everything found nothing wrong said it was safe to drive. A couple days later something fell off near the engine compartment bumped the floor under the driver side as it fell under the car at about 80klm. Hear a metalic clang and the rattling is now gone. 
is there a non critical bracket of some sort in the engine compartment like a defector to protect hoses or something like that?  Toyota wants way too much to have a look and i cannot find any pics or info of what it could have been. 
All help appreciated. 
Trevor