how important is the driveshaft tunnel heatshield?

[peller]

I've got the driveshaft apart now so I was curious, how bad is it if I don't put the heatshield for the tunnel and gas tank back into the car? I'm in the northeast and it's my daily driver.
Thanks!

[atomic]

not sure but are you lazy ???? just asking ????

[Mike325]

I would use it. It will keep shit from flying up on the CB and possibly hurting it. It also keeps exhaust heat from the CB, which has rubber parts and they could melt from the heat.

[BeirBrennerE30]

you dont need it.. i dont run one. However my car doesnt see bad weather.

[Jand3rson]

you dont need it.. i dont run one. However my car doesnt see bad weather.

Same, about the not running in bad weather, anyway. But you're probably better off with it than without, especially if your car is a daily.

[Jon325i]

Not running heat shields here either. Recently my center support bushing took a shit on me so I'm addressing that this weekend. Not sure if the lack of heat shield had anything to do with it. My car has 184K on it now......including some track time by yours truly.

Jon

[markseven]

Just curious: What are the benefits of not reinstalling it?

[Jand3rson]

Absolutely none.

[kellie]

Heat shields were put in place for a reason. A little German engineer spent hours toiling over that heat shield, and you are disrespecting him by not reinstalling it.

On my WRX, I didn't reinstall my turbo heat shield after I installed my downpipe 'cause I like being able to see the turbo. Now, when it gets REALLY hot outside, the heat from my turbo does funky things to my cruise control module which tightens the slack on the cable and makes my car idle high. It took 3 years of driving without a heat shield for it to happen, but I've learned my lesson. Hopefully you can learn from my mistake.

[DuMa]

if you're running no exhaust for track, then you dont need it.

[JasonC]

My car don't have it and i drive it daily.

[backtrail69]

I took it off my on my turbo car since the exhaust isn't tucked up as nicely as before. I will leave it on my eta, since its my daily and reliability is key...

[Funkmasta]

I took it off my on my turbo car since the exhaust isn't tucked up as nicely as before. I will leave it on my eta, since its my daily and reliability is key...

Could not have said it better myself...

My 335is does not have a heat shield. Does it really really matter? no...

I didn't reinstall it because after the swap, I needed to be prepared to have some issues pop up. (we built motor mounts and used a driveshaft that "worked" instead of having one "built"). I didnt want to have to pull the exhaust and heat shield to troubleshoot if need be.

I almost expect the CSB to outlive the driveshaft anyway...