Loose heat shields

[YammyRX1]

I noticed that my front heat shield rivets are all loose and they can rattle (but I've never noticed any noise). Are they supposed to be like that to allow for heat expansion or should I drill out the rivets and replace them while I'm in there?

 

[thrasher]

Removed mine completely as they were loose also and didn't want letting go and damaging the front heat exchanger. Do not believe they are really necessary anyhow, as when I replaced the Y-pipes with stainless steel ones they didn't have the heat shields.

 

[YammyRX1]

I did that with the rear, did they stop using all 3 heat shields after '05?

 

[thrasher]

Don't know.

 

[MT.man]

Yes , my 03 was "shieldless" after the first season. The 05 didn't have the shields.

 

[RX1Jim]

The shields do not really serve any purpose. I removed them from my 03 RX1 7000 miles ago and have had NO problems.

 

[03RX1-ER-LE]

Removed them from all three of mine, between the shields rattling, exhaust doughnuts rattle and primary clutch rattle it was driving me crazy. I was able to cure two of them, I would like to fix the last one with the clutch besides turning up idle to eliminate most of it.