Broken Muffler Heat Shield

[mact]

So today after running through a large puddle of water (raining like crazy), I started to hear a nasty rattle from underneath the car. Came home to find this:

Has this happened to anyone else? The heat shield just above the muffler was almost completely broken off from the 4 nuts holding it in place, thus causing the loud rattle. A simple tug and the entire thing came off. Gonna check the price on a new one tomorrow, and if it's too pricey then i'll find a way to reuse this one. I had an 03 SR5 before this and didn't have any corrosion problems. Current car is an 06.

The only other issue i've had with the car was a completely corroded parking brake spring that broke into pieces. I imagine my Runner has seen some pretty rough and salty winters since new.

 

[TechWrench]

This is a fairly common problem with these shields. As long as you can get the nuts that originally held it in place off, the fix is fairly easy. Get some fender washers with a 1/4" hole (they should have an outside diameter of about 2") and use them to make up for the missing material in the original shields mounting holes. I did this to mine several years ago, and it is still in place.