So I learned the other day that the muffler has a heat shield, located between the muffler and the floorboards. This turned out to be the source of a rattle I've had for about six months. For one thing, the fastener holding the heat shield to the underside of the car was not tight, and tightening it reduced the noise, but did not eliminate it.

The heat shield is a flat sheet of metal shaped like a triptych painting. There is the central portion, in the shape of a rectangle, that deflects heat from the top of the muffler, and then two smaller rectangles on each side, bent and separated from the central piece by a fold, that are designed to deflect heat from the sides of the muffler. One of these side pieces has partly broken off at the fold, and we think this is what is causing the remaining rattle.

It looks like we will need to replace the heat shield, and I have some questions:

1. I've looked for the part in the usual places (Land Rovers North, Lucky 8, Atlantic British) but have not found it. Does anyone have a part number or a link?

2. Is there any way to remove the heat shield without removing the muffler? I don't think there is, but would be happy to be proven wrong about this.

3. It looks like the muffler is held in place by five bolts that will probably break off when we try to loosen them, and I will have new ones on hand when we do the job. Does anyone have advice about the muffler removal and the heat shield replacement process in general?

 

The muffler heat shield on my '96 D1 also rattled and drove me crazy. I probably wedged some metal sponge in there after tightening the bolt. Maybe try that. It doesn't need to be pretty.

I have been using sheet metal to replace missing heat shields, old license plates and what-not. But probably should note the originals are made out of fiber board coated with metal foil. The fiber board acts as an insulator, the metal foil reflects the infra-red, so sheet metal alone is not an exact match.

 

I’ve would attempt to locate one at a junk yard first. Or make your own out of sheet metal and some adhesive heat barrier

 

Any imitation sheet metal shield should be a decent replacement. I solved the rattling with new nuts. If you find them stainless, much better. My source was casual from the junk bin on board an electrical utility truck that was replacing high voltage fuses near my house (metric) They look like a threaded 15mm hat, they discard them ! So look for the next utility truck around and ask.

 

My muffler heat-shield was shaking around/rattling and I found that the reinforced holes where it mounts to the studs had deteriorated and that was allowing it to move around no matter how much I tightened up the bolts. My solution was to epoxy large washers to the heat-shield holes and that seemed to fix that particular rattle. The part itself is NLA so I would suggest searching ebay or the boneyard; took awhile but I found one from an 03-04 D2 and it seems like LR used more aluminum so it won't disintegrate like the earlier fiberboard/foil heat-shield.

 

Thanks everyone for your advice. I will discuss with my mechanic and let you know how it works out.