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I looked through the Sewell diagrams of exhaust system parts, etc., and can't find a heat shield listed or shown.
I'm going to try to look under the car today and see what I can.
Full report to follow.
You couldn't find it because it wasn't there - it is now though.
Here's an update.
I looked under the car, and can report the following. The missing heat shield is not the one above the Cat Converter, nor is it the one at the rear of the car between the rear muffler and the spare.
Below is a photo which is about the best I can do under the circumstances. There is a large muffler in the center of the car that runs, on the right side of the car, from about the center of the rear door to the front of the rear tire. The photo shows a bolt and holder that appear to be used to hold a shield in place; there is another unused bolt in the vicinity that also appears to be holding nothing. Above the muffler is a large black plastic box. Things that are not wires run into this box from the front, but I can't see well enough there to figure out what that box does. It looks like the heat shield would go above the muffler and below this box.
I cannot find any of the heat shields on the Sewell parts graphics or in its "search" function, nor do I see this box which sits above this muffler.
Maybe I need to call my service manager and ask him what's in that box, as it seems to be the only thing that would be protected by the shield.
Also, now that you know where to look, you should see three heat shields along your exhaust system: above the cat converter, between the rear small muffler and the spare, and this missing one which sits pretty much at the back door opening.
If anyone knows what is in that black box or what its function is, I would be glad to know. (You can see the beam from my flashlight on the bottom of the black box; the silver at the bottom of the photo is the muffler.)
Thanks.
tfischer, did you ever find out what the black box was for? The same heat shield fell off my RX and I'm wondering if I should bother to replace it.
I never did figure that out. I don't think I did anything to the car in the way of fixing the heat shield, and I sold it a year ago. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Yep! Had to have my heat shield removed and a trusted mechanic told me don't worry about it so I don't. Another 'shield' came off from the front of the car and another trusted mechanic wouldn't even look it up to replace it. He just took it off and sent me driving. Put on about 20K since the first incident w/o issue and the 15K since the 2nd. No problems.
Since this old thread has been revived, I want to post that I also removed this very heat shield on my RX350.
This caused the plastic 'black box' (its the vapor canister) to melt. Here is the charcoal pellet mess in my driveway. I now have both a CEL and the VSC is disabled. Thank you, Lexus engineers, for idiotically tying emissions into safety and handling!
You chose to eliminated a heat shield and now you're upset at the mfg for problems it directly caused? What am I missing here?
Well, you're missing at least two things. First, the shield eliminated itself on a road trip. All I did was pull it away from the hot exhaust pipe to stop it from becoming road debris. The loud clanking sounds were my only hint that it had simply fallen off. Second, VSC is tied to emissions, which is a large safety issue. Third, the shield is aluminum, but is held into the frame with steel bolts. It fell away due to galvanic corrosion. This is a no-no for all kinds of reasons. Do you think disabling vehicle stability control due to emissions issue is not a safety concern?
07-15-11, 12:25 PM
