Thread: Parking brake heat shield question!!!!

Do you guys think it is necessary to have? This front cable for parking brake has been a b*tch of a job so far. I've already had to drill out the lever bolts which snapped off, and pull out the rear of carpet and drill two new holes for the cable mounts since their bolts also snapped..

Anyways, 2 of the 3 heat shield bolts also snapped off GRR. And I really, really don't want to have to pull out the rest of the carpet, both seats, and try to find/line up and drill new holes just for a damn heat shield.

From what I saw before I started taking the parking brake lines off the body, they do not even come close to the exhaust pipe. Also it's mounted real well and there's no chance it's going to be able to move around to hit them.

So my question to you guys is do you think I would be ok to just say f*ck the shields and bolt the lines back up to the body with the new holes and call it good?

Just looking for opinions. I'm not even sure why the shielding is there in the first place!

my maroon 91 doesn't even have that shield anymore .... I damn sure am not putting them back, but its not a daily driver. The only thing I would mention is the weather proofing (or lack thereof) it would provide from nasty winters and direct salt on a daily car. Maybe prevent water from getting in there... I don't know. On the other hand my cables have frozen with the heat shields there as well.

It's your call. If you do it right you'll have that piece of mind, but if its not worth the trouble eff it. If you want, maybe you could get some bolts tack welded on the bottom to avoid cutting holes in the floorboard. Or maybe just undercoat over everything. Just throwin' it out there.

Given the hassle you have to go through, i'd probably skip it.
However, i do suffer shifting problems without my cat heat shield when the engine gets really hot, then the car has been stationary for a good length of time with the engine running. What happens is that the shift stick (B&M) won't return to centre ie it stays wherever you put it across the middle of the H-pattern, and it's a bit tougher to shift.
This is all relative though with a HDPP and 6 puck ceramic unsprung clutch, 3" exhaust system throughout, with a big low volume cylindrical cat sitting alot closer to the underside of the car...

I dont have mine on and i have no issues. Its not a DD either and it will never see another winter so i figured just leave it off. I have stock exhaust still on the car and my shifter works fine, B&M with all the bushings and no issues.

The thing is I really don't think that there is much that shield does in the first place. Given how far it is from the pipe, and the convection air currents in between while driving, I think it is mostly intended to stop things from hitting the hot exhaust pipe. Since they come nowhere near it anyways, I think I'll just leave it off!

Ohhh good question, I had to take mine off to fit the 6" resonator...

The thing that I am afraid of is, the exhaust piping might melt the parking break wires away

Alright, I finally got her done after another 3 hours of work. I think it will be just fine. Some zip tie action made sure that parking brake lines were nowhere near the exhaust!

Now I just hope that the nuts stay tight and don't fall off the lines!! Torqued them pretty good and the bolt started to sink into the floor of the car haha. Stopped there.

You know what i always say about heat shields. **** 'em.

Waste of time eh?

yep.