I am not talking about the heat shield thats part of exhaust. I am talking about the ones thats btw the exhaust pipe and driveshaft. MY 96 OB 5 speed, the exhaust pipe keeps hitting the heat shield.

Can I remove it? Would the heat damage the driveshaft bearing?

Thanks

you could "probably" remove it. but since you live in a high temp location, and may spend time in traffic its probably best to keep it, its not just for the drive shaft, its also to keep your carpet from melting.

hopefully someone that's done it can reply.

 

in general floor boards can get extremely hot, i've been in vehicles before that you couldn't ride in barefoot they would get so hot because the folks had removed all the carpeting and nothing was stock about the vehicle, none were subarus but the principles are similar.

 

that being said i'm fairly certain i've removed all the heat shields on subaru's before with no issues. but can't say for certain i've removed that one, pretty sure I have though. I don't even think the older ones all have that heat shield either. Heat shields are really annoying.

i'm surprised your heat shield is hitting the exhaust. my experience has been that when removing and replacing the heat shield it has a tendency to hit the drive shaft. but i guess it just depends on which way it has been flexed.

thats exactly what happened. I replaced the driveshaft and ever since then, the heat shield has been making all kind of noise. I went under the car this morning and find a way to lower the exhaust a little and so far so good.

Thanks

 

i'm surprised your heat shield is hitting the exhaust. my experience has been that when removing and replacing the heat shield it has a tendency to hit the drive shaft. but i guess it just depends on which way it has been flexed.

I've thrown them out on a few cars with no problems.

Gary, I have removed them on several of my own cars and never had an issue. It has currently been removed on my '99 Outback for 3 years now. No problems at all whatsover.

On my old 98 Outback I had them removed. They were constantly rattling and I couldn't keep them fixed. Other folks here had said they did it, and a family friend who owns a shop advised removing them as well. So I had him cut them off and it worked fine for me.