So as i was driving my car today i noticed that my header heat shield was rattling, in my head i was thinking i can just remove it like most people i have seen do it, and im a noob with cars so can anyone tell me if i should remove it or not? and if i don't what the problem might be?

 

keep it on

 

Tighten the bolts and see if the rattle goes away.

 

The rattle you are hearing is probably the catalytic converter heatshield. It can be removed OR you can do the cat hoseclamp mod like I did on my 2000 Civic EX

Buy four hoseclamps and open them up


then attach them together like this


then wrap each clamp around the cat like so..

 

oops double post

 

took off my cat heat shield & my header shield

honestly there is no difference, or at least enough to make a large amount of difference

sure there is more heat released, but unless you're running boosted its nothing to worry about - yank that **** out and call it weight reduction